Nascar Payday
| Category: Nascar | 0 Comments
“Would someone please explain to me how Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 16th and was paid $101,000? Fourteen other drivers finished below him, including Travis Kvapil at 41st and made $106,594. How in the world do they come up with these weird numbers?” - July 15, 2008
Sure.
There are two main elements to Nascar prize money for each race. The first part is the actual race purse (this includes TV money). If the total purse for a race is $10,000,000, that money is distributed to each driver, based on finishing position. Just like you would expect, the winner receives more of the race purse money than the driver who finishes 41st.
The second element of a driver’s final money total are contingency awards. Certain sponsors may award drivers additional prize money for recognizing their sponsor on their vehicle with a decal. For instance, Goodyear tires could give $3,000 to every driver with a Goodyear decal on their car.
Other types of contingency awards exist, including ones that award money to drivers who have won the race previously.
In this way, the total money that each driver earns in a weekend may not completely align with finishing position.
