Insider reveals why NASCAR doesn't disclose race payouts

In a sport like golf, the amount of money a player makes for winning or placing in a tournament is public information. In NASCAR, however, those numbers are not disclosed by the sanctioning body.

Fans have long wondered why NASCAR is as secretive as it is about the race purses, which Jeff Gluck of The Athletic addressed on the latest edition of “The Teardown” podcast. Gluck cited the “different buckets you get paid from,” as well as the impact of charters.

“I think it started with NASCAR not wanting — they said, ‘Oh, fans don’t care about the money part of this,’ which I think fans definitely do,” Gluck said. “And it also came with the charters — it’s not as straightforward. They don’t really want to disclose the per race winnings necessarily because part of it is the historical value. There’s several different buckets you get paid from. And so, it’s not as straightforward as OK, you finished 13th in this race so you get x amount of dollars.

“There’s so much more that goes into it now. I think they still could share that if they wanted to but similar to attendance, they said when I think there was somewhat of a downturn type thing, they said, ‘Ah, we don’t want the numbers to be out there about the purses anymore,’ and then they eventually put the total purse back which Bob [Pockrass] tweets every week. They started revealing that again, at least the total purse for the race. But I just don’t think they want fans or media focused on the money. ‘Oh, this driver made this amount of dollars this year.’

“But I used to think that was really cool. Even Racing Reference, now you look back in the day and say, ‘Oh, Jeff Gordon made x amount of dollars this season, wow, that’s incredible.’ And you could look at all the payouts from back in the day. Think that was pretty cool. But I think the charters made it more complicated and are a reason why it’s less straightforward now. And harder to explain.”

NASCAR back to revealing total race payouts

As Gluck mentioned, NASCAR does reveal the total purse for each race. This past season’s Daytona 500, for example, had a record purse of $28,035,991. William Byron won the race, but race winners do not know how much they will receive until the check arrives.

In the last Daytona 500 where the sport revealed prize money, Joey Logano won $1,586,503 for his victory in 2015, per Reid Spencer of NASCAR.com. As Michael McDowell, the 2021 Daytona 500 winner said, let’s just say the amount of money is pretty significant.

“Obviously, significant,” McDowell said earlier this year. “It’s the biggest race of the year for us and for the team from a payout standpoint. It does matter, especially for a team like us at Front Row [Motorsports]. Winning the race and making the playoffs, financially what that does for you, it sets up the next few years. Not just that year.

“If you’re going to win a race, this is the one you want to win. As far as the financial part of it goes.”