for the love of the sport or the love of the money by dick "the king of the pits" well it looks like the 2021 racing season is slowly coming to and end as we all know the 2020 season was a disaster with series racing in front of empty grandstands and the series and promoters taking the blunt of it when you watch a series by streaming or on television you always look at number of fans that are in the stands at the races guess it is just second nature that we do that however we do without the fans in the stands the promoters cannot pay the purses to the winners of these races nor can they pay the ticket takers the track crew etc. some small tracks that put on a weekly show make money on the "back gate" which is everyone that wants access to the pits like mechanics wives parents and grand parents kids wives and husbands there was a track i once attended on a regular basis that would have up to 100 entries for a 6 class (divisions) show. they almost gave their grandstand tickets away at $7 however could never have more than 100 people in the stands the track promoted the races quite a bit however never could get over that hump they even promoted a free night when admission was free however maybe only had 150 people there it was almost sad because the show they put on was actually a good show i was pretty good friends with the promoter and ask her one night how she made any money and she explained we was happy to break even she explained to me she spent over 20 hours a week in preparation for a night of racing and her husband would begin watering the track on Tuesday night and would continue till saturday then on sunday they would return to clean the grounds of debris left there on saturday. they did all this for the love of the sport and still do today the investment for a race car is off the charts and just to show up to compete costs are are very expensive you have the costs for fuel, tires, traveling expenses pit passes food etc are very expensive and if your competing in a weekly show maybe if you finish in the top three of the feature you may be able to break even and everybody goes home loosing momey so we ask why do they do it over and over for the love of the sport every driver that ever puts driving gloves on and a helmet has a goal to take it to the big leagues of auto racing nascar WOO usac silver crown etc if you don't have the money to finance your way to the major leagues honestly you will not make it your writer has witnessed some very good drivers that had more talent than money and never made it because of that unfortunately true motorsports is a weird sport it is the only sport that the participant risks his life on a regular basis and the rewards are far less than basketball baseball soccer or football so why do they do that simple for the love of the sport. nascar is a very profitable series and most participants are in it for the love of the money. a NASCAR team can be expected to be a very hefty investment. It involves lots of expenses all of which cost a large amount of money. The expected total for owning a NASCAR team is nearly $400,000 per week which over the 38 week season is on average more than $15 million in annual expenses i do not believe these figures include the driver salary during the NASCAR season, primary sponsors will pay between $5 and $35 million dollars. While expensive, primary sponsors have their logos placed on the hood, rear quarter panel, TV panel, deck lid and roof panel if my math is correct 35 minus 15 is twenty and add the word million behind it that is like 20 million and if these these drivers are really making these bucks listed below there is still plenty of millions left over so why do they do that simple for the love of the money The salaries of Nascar Drivers in the US range from $21,364 to $577,997 , with a median salary of $103,858 . The middle 57% of Nascar Drivers makes between $103,862 and $260,376, with the top 86% making $577,997. simple the owners are the ones making the bucks in nascar |