“Guys Were Making $10 Million”: NASCAR Insider Exposes the Dark Side of Drivers’ Paychecks as Profitability Tensions Reach Tipping Point

The financial chaos that NASCAR and its teams are in has been put on the speaker for years now. With racing outfits demanding ways to turn profitable, NASCAR is riding on edgy cliffs right now as the charter negotiations are going nowhere. With the skies still foggy even after the promotion’s new $7.7 billion deal, the former spotter of racing legend Jeff Burton has now come out with a new demand concerning rookie drivers.

A co-host on the popular Door, Bumper, Clear podcast, Brett Griffin believes that NASCAR rookies are being paid a very menial fee for the work they put in.

Amid unprofitability woes, veteran spotter demands teams to pay rookies more

With its eyes on the global stage, NASCAR has been aiming to be more like the other sports out there in many aspects. From the fan forums in Formula 1 to the playoff structure in football, the promotion has sought to draw inspiration from many to get ahead. But one area in which it has trailed conversely is the payment to rookie drivers. When compared to the numbers that newcomers were paid a few decades back, the payment that the ones now get is significantly lower.

Talking about the same, Brett Griffin told Tyler Reddick, who was a guest on the podcast’s latest episode, “I lived in the era of the highest-paid drivers in NASCAR history. I watched rookies come in and get massive contracts to drive race cars. Now I am watching rookies come in and get crappy… Owners, General Managers, and Presidents are gonna hear me say this. I don’t care. It p*sses me off that a guy goes out there and works 40 weekends a year, risks his life, works endless hours on the simulator, works in a test, does things for you, obviously races on the weekend, and he can make half a million dollars. That p*sses me off.

“Because I grew up in the era where guys were making 10 million dollars. Plus, driving a race car in no other sport do I see their athletes going backwards from a financial perspective. That upsets me.”

According to several reports, the average that an inexperienced driver in the top tier of NASCAR can make inclusive of endorsements and licensing varies between $500,000 and $1 million annually. As Griffin stated, this is nowhere near the payments that drivers made just a few decades back. But then again, with teams pegging continuously just to turn profitable, how practical is it to expect rookies to be paid higher?

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Over the 2010s, we saw teams let go of veterans like Matt Kenseth in favor of younger drivers like Erik Jones and Alex Bowman. The reasoning behind this wasn’t skill or on-track momentum solely, but also the relative pay-to-result gains. Back in 2017, Dale Earnhardt Jr spoke to Autoweek and acknowledged that the next generation of NASCAR stars will be paid significantly lesser than their predecessors. He said, “You’ve got a lot of young guys coming in being offered and accepting contracts that are a fifth to a tenth of what veterans are getting paid. And, that’s money that can go into the team, you know?”

Brett Griffin’s contention though is that the examples that Dale Earnhardt and Denny Hamlin set by transitioning into team owners from being regular drivers cannot be repeated any longer that easily. He added in his words to Reddick, “I think the good news is guys like Denny Hamlin, who have been drivers in the sport and made a lot of money, it is awesome for him to be an owner. Dale Earnhardt owned DEI. Dale Earnhardt Jr’s initial Cup Series salary was bank. I ain’t gonna say how much money it was. It was bank. […] For me, I am a big fan of that. I am a big fan of us seeing more money come back in.”

Many elements such as NASCAR’s multiple streaming partner deal and its global expansion methods have all been attributed to “changing times.” Perhaps, the payment that goes out to rookie drivers too is a result of the ever-changing landscape. Maybe they will get paid more once the pending fiascos are sorted but that doesn’t seem likely to be anytime soon.

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