According to the Simply Hired website, the average salary for a race car driver is $38,000 yearly as of 2011. Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Advance Auto, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 61st Annual, AUTO: FEB 17 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series -, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor. is at least $500,000. Bowyer's win at Martinsville last year ended a 190-race winless streak that stretched back to 2012. Salaries for new drivers are typically six figures with only a handful of drivers earning more than $4 million in base salary. Then there's the bottom tier and teams that ( which spends $4-$9Million+ per year. Today's most famous NASCAR announcers include Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Letarte. Access the digital replica of USA TODAY and more than 200 local newspapers with your subscription. NASCAR is clearly gearing towards younger racers, while older drivers find themselves in the Craftsman Truck Series. Racing gas is leaded, 104 octane. The typical NASCAR driver makes more money from winnings than from salary and the least money from endorsements and merchandise royalties. Through the purse split, the winner, on average, takes home $47,500 a race while the loser makes close to $8,500. Finally, there are endorsements and licensing, through which the best and most popular racers can earn a few million dollars annually. Looking at the highest paid driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. rules the field with $23.6 million in total earnings for 2015. Also Read- Watch: New NASCAR commercial featuring Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer. The top ten 2021 drivers earnt on average 10.4 million dollars. How much does it cost to run a NASCAR truck? If you have a high level of engineering knowledge, or you've . These kinds of experts are usually very good at math and logic and are able to solve complex problems. NASCAR drivers have to do it themself using a 4-speed H-pattern gear selector. 6 Primary Sponsorship - $400,000 Per Race It will cost at least $400,000 for a company to be the primary sponsor of a driver and his car. Nascar has suffered from the retirement in recent years of many of its biggest names, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Danica Patrick. For many of the top race car drivers in NASCAR, the big bucks comes not from salary, but from endorsements and win money. It is no secret that some NASCAR drivers are multimillionaires. Adding up median salary, race winnings and endorsement money puts the median NASCAR drivers total pay up over $5 million per year. On top of that, Lewis takes home a portion of the purse from any races he wins during a season. 23. How many miles per gallon do NASCAR cars get? What does it take to become a professional NASCAR driver? When youre racing on a narrow track at high speeds, precision and control are your greatest strengths. Even pro golf manages to fit in 241 players. They may not be required to move as fast as the pit crew, but they make up for it with extreme accuracy. Racing is mainly made up of three things: power, driver, and torque. Clint Bowyer finished 7th and got $437,178, and so on. NASCAR drivers get paid a yearly salary by their teams and also typically receive bonuses for winning or placing high in races.Typically, the more money a team receives for sponsoring a certain car, the more money the driver of that car will be paid in salary. Road & Track participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Drivers keep anywhere from 40% to 45% of their purse while the rest is distributed throughout the team. For that IndyCar driver, across the 16-race 2012 season, he earned $31,250 per event. This can range anywhere from $50,000 at the entry level to over $15 million for established drivers such as Kyle Busch. How many gears does a NASCAR truck have? Flag for review. Compare that IndyCar winner's annual pay to what Miami Heat star LeBron James takes home for an 82-game season: $17,545,000. Drivers in the upper 10% make a significantly higher portion of their total earnings from endorsements. Regardless of how you get the job, NASCAR commentators at all levels have to be effective communicators. These people often have an equal passion for the sport but do not participate firsthand (NASCAR is not an easy sport to get into, after all). Factoring that in makes NASCAR drivers the highest paid of any televised competitive sport. At the Cup level, they are under contract to the race team and the team is under contract to their sponsors and those contracts are usually private, so it's whatever the contract stipulates. Must possess personal tools and equipment. This is a list of the top earners: Dale Earnhardt: $22 million. How much do NASCAR engine builders make? Sports Cars That Make Great Daily Drivers in 2023, The Stars of "The Fast & The Furious", Then & Now, Peek Inside the Coolest Sci-Fi Movie Cars, What It's Like to Be a Mechanic in the Daytona 500, The Most Luxurious Cars You Can Buy in 2023, Five Bad Habits That Will Destroy Your DCT. The highest paid female driver is Danica Patrick. Its true that Danica Patrick is the only well known female driver in the league, but there are 12 other active female drivers and there have been nearly 100 women drivers throughout the history of the sport. "In Formula One and in Indy cars, tobacco money was a big part of things; it paid for so much of the racing and as a knock-on effect, the driver salaries. When a racer crossed the finish line, their name appeared in the results with a monetary value. These purses were lucrative, with winners making $47,500 and the losers taking home a cool $8,500 on average. In other words, in a group of ten people were nine make $60,000 a year and one is LeBron James, the average salary would be $2.3 million while the median is a far more descriptive $60,000. NASCAR money is handled something like golf money. How much do F1 drivers make? The average salary for a NASCAR pit crew member is $250,000 per year. NASCAR stopped releasing those numbers after the 2015 season. How much money do announcers for NASCAR earn? Schedule a personalized demo to feel the power of Payscale, Find salary information for similar job titles and locations, Reliable compensation data. Along with that, being in top physical condition should be a way of life for a NASCAR driver. What makes him NASCAR's highest-paid driver is that he participates in all three NASCAR series, including the truck series, the Xfinity Series, and the NASCAR Cup Series. The average Race Car Driver in the US makes $64,168. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team for Code of Conduct and Performance Obligation violations. They may also have product lines and investments. Jimmie Johnson is a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. The home improvement chain signed on as primary sponsor of the No. As per the Nascar data of 2018, Johnson earned a whopping $17.5million last year alone. NASCARs top money maker is Dale Earnhardt, Jr. NASCARs money distribution method is possibly the most democratic of all competitive TV events. Having said that, a developmental NASCAR driver can pocket anything between $100,000 and $300,000 in base salary and another $200,000 in prize money. As most car haulers are usually responsible for loading and unloading the cars, they not only have to transport them safely, they need to get them on and off the truck safely. Despite the high-pressure nature of NASCAR racing, driver salaries are relatively low when you compare them to other major motorsports. Johnson is Nascar's highest-paid driver for the second time in three years. It is impossible to say exactly how much skill a NASCAR driver needs in order to compete, but it can be concluded that skill is most certainly something that NASCAR drivers need to succeed. Reviews: 82% of readers found this page helpful, Address: Apt. He pocketed earning of $17.8 million from his salary, endorsements, share from winning, and licensing. And some of that steel can end up back in a race shop. One surprising thing about her is that shes on the bottom end of the top ten highest paid NASCAR drivers with $7.8 million in salary in winnings, but she more than makes up for it with endorsement deals of $6 million a year total. For those with talent, it's a natural, step-by-step process. Drivers who transition from company drivers to owner-operators often earn more than six figures annually. Another interesting question on race car driver earnings: how much does . He backed it up with a June win at the Michigan International Speedway. Kyle Busch became the highest-paid NASCAR driver when he won the 2019 Cup. Leading up to the 2020 Daytona 500 was setat a mind-boggling $23.6 millionbefore the race a record for the sport and the first time that a purse was recorded in over five years. When it comes to NASCAR jobs, where does all that fuel, er, money go? 32. As of Dec 29, 2022, the average annual pay for the Nascar Hauler jobs category in Soda Bay is $56,493 a year. They have endorsements and advertisements as well as public appearances. It costs money to do this stuff: Teams pay a $4,300 entry and inspection fee to have their primary car approved for competition during a NASCAR weekend. The 2017 Cup champion landed on his feet with a multi-year deal with Joe Gibbs Racing. In the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL, the top ten or twenty earners throw the averages out of whack. He earned $17.5 million in 2018 by Forbes count from his Hendrick Motorsports salary and his cut of winnings and licensing. It involves many expenses, all of which cost a large amount of money. 15. Old number 43 is not exaggerating. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, broadcast announcers, who fall under the "announcers and DJs" category, earn a mean annual wage of around $50,000, so NASCAR announcers may be on the lower end of that range. This allows the focus to be on the driver and their skill. Interestingly, one of them is a woman, which we dont tend to see in professional sports. But even with that massive salary, he only finished 14 th in the championship, while Joey Logano, who won . Los Angeles, California. A NASCAR race car costs between $20,000 and $100,000, depending on age and condition. That includes race winnings, salary, merchandise royalties and endorsements. (Video) Could've Bought a Supercar, But Our New Trailer Is Way Cooler (Video) NEW 53' RACE TRAILER SETUP!!!!! NASCAR car chiefs earned between $110,000 and $130,000 on average in 2006, according to Car & Driver. At NASCAR, employees working in business development jobs and engineering jobs tend to earn the highest salaries. Salaries and earnings of NASCAR drivers fall into two categories: (1) those top drivers who make millions each year and (2) those drivers who are only earning five or six figures and hoping to make millions. Unlike F1, the Nascar car doesn't have paddle shifters (F1 drivers press the pedals and the computer will do the work). How Do Drivers Get A NASCAR Racing License? The more technical knowledge a driver has, the greater the chances of knowing what to do if and when something goes wrong. What are the highest paying trucking jobs? FedEx has been part of Joe Gibbs Racing since 2005 and is the lone primary sponsor for Hamlin's car. His earnings also include personal endorsements with the likes of Chevrolet, Gatorade and Seiko. That said, we do have some info on NASCAR drivers salaries, thanks to SportsIllustrated.cnn.com. NASCAR doesn't state the exact amount of the championship funds. Whatever the numbers are, driving is a lucrative sport for those who are good enough to break into the front, and the pay of those who arent isnt too shabby, either. Most people know that the National Football League (NFL) is the most popular sport on TV, but it may raise a few eyebrows to hear that the second highest-rated sport is NASCAR the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. Party Bus Driver. This article will go into detail about how much is costs to advertise with NASCAR and break down a variety of ways in which a company can do so. And you dont have to win at the Cup level to draw big bucks; Casey Mears and Brian Vickers, were in high demand (sans a Cup win) when their contracts expired. The data in this article are based on available NASCAR winnings reported by sports statistics site Spotrac.com. What does the red exclamation mark mean on the Common App? 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