Lesson 2: NASCAR Glossary
Purse Money
As a Cup writer and diehard fan for many years, I have been asked this question on several occasions. “How come so and so finished 30th and got more purse money than what’s his face did by finishing 5th?” This section will attempt to explain this phenomenon.
One part of the equation is called contingency awards from contingency programs. Sponsors award money to race winners and competitors who display the sponsor’s decals on their racecars. These decals are usually displayed on the sides of the front fenders, although they are also some adhered to other parts of the car where they will be readily noticed. There are different awards covering different things. A sponsor can offer $5k for a fast lap award, offering that amount to the driver who ran the fastest lap of the race if he had their decal on his car. A couple of years ago Gatorade offered $10k to the leader of the race at the halfway mark if that driver had the Gatorade decal on his car. These are just a couple of examples of how contingency awards can add to a driver’s race purse.
Each racetrack offers a race purse package depending on their attendance gate and the amount of money that they get from the TV network that is broadcasting the race. This package or fund is much different throughout NASCAR because of the different sizes of racetracks and the major importance of some races over others. As an example, the Brickyard 400, Coca Cola 600, and Daytona 500 are considered to much more important and pay much more than a short track race at Martinsville or Richmond, or a road course event at Infineon Raceway or Watkins Glen.
Some of the other awards that add to a driver’s purse money are the car owner’s Winner’s Circle award and Plan 1 award, Winston Leader Bonus, Third Place Qualifying award, and the Defending Champions award.
The Winner’s Circle award pays $10.2k to the ten most recent winners who start a race. The Plan 1 award pays $7k to the prior season’s top 30 teams each time they start a race. The Winston Leader Bonus pays $10k to the winner of a race if he is leading the driver’s championship points at the end of an event. This bonus accumulates for every race whether the driver’s point’s leader wins or not. If the point’s leader doesn’t win a race for ten races, the bonus grows to $100k and keeps growing by increments of $10k until a point’s leader wins a race. The defending champion award pays $5k to each season’s defending champion each time he starts a race.
I’ve covered only a small portion of the bonuses and contingency awards that are available to those winning and entering NASCAR races, the whole listing is too long to cover here, plus, with sponsors coming and going at a high rate these days, the awards are subject to change during any given season.
