A 2020 estimation by Forbes had Joe Gibbs Racing’s total asset value at $230 million. That would put them Number 2 behind Hendrick Motorsports on the list of NASCAR’s most valuable teams in the current regard. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to long-time fans. After all, as of 2025, ‘Coach’ Joe Gibbs’s organization will be the only one apart from Rick Hendrick’s that fields four cars at the sport’s highest level.

Naturally, that should make JGR drivers some of the highest-paid in all of stock car racing. Well, they most certainly are, although balancing driver salaries with the constant expenses of NASCAR can prove to be an arduous task for even the most experienced team owners. Regardless, the 5-time Cup Series champs seem to have it covered, with an added incentive program for all its hard-working personnel.

Joe Gibbs Racing has a bonus program for drivers and crew members

Barring all the numbers and finances, on face value alone, Joe Gibbs fields one of the biggest teams in NASCAR’s brand of annual racing festivities. Since 1992, JGR has fielded cars for star drivers like Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Kyle Busch, and Denny Hamlin. And if that wasn’t proof enough of their greatness, JGR has raced a staggering 3171 times in the Cup Series and won 214 of those races. They started plying their trade in NASCAR, running American-made Chevys, similar to teams like Hendrick, and Richard Childress Racing, who were much bigger than JGR in the 90s.

But in 2024, Joe Gibbs Racing has emerged as the integral third face of a three-headed monster that includes OEMs Chevy, Ford, and JGR’s very own affiliation—Toyota Racing Development (TRD). In NASCAR terms, JGR is one of the few Tier One affiliates of the Japanese manufacturers in stock car racing. Their partnership made history in 2015 when Kyle Busch, former driver of the #18 car, became the first to win TRD a Cup Series championship. A lot has changed in the 5 years since, but JGR remains a force to be reckoned with in NASCAR.

However, one thing that has remained somewhat of a mystery in the wider community is the driver payout that a Gibbs driver potentially receives during their tenure at the organization. The same goes for the pay structure and all other benefits. So, to clear some questions surrounding that aspect, JGR president Dave Alpern revealed a few nuances about their economics on social media. The question lay simple: “Do drivers get a performance bonus?”

According to Alpern, “[JGR] drivers not only have a base salary, but yes, they get a portion of the purse just like the team does. So a driver has an incentive to win a race. So, every week, when we get the purse paid out, that purse gets divided. A portion goes to all the employees on an employee bonus. A portion goes to the team. And a portion goes to the driver based on their weekly finishing position and their year-end finishing position.”

That means the cumulative dollars earned for each driver may vary exponentially based on their performances over a single season. For example, someone like Denny Hamlin or Christopher Bell, who went a few rounds further in the 2024 playoffs than Ty Gibbs or Martin Truex Jr stands to earn more money, as per Alpern’s description. That sure sounds like a fair deal for all parties involved in the transactions, although pinpointing the exact amount each driver takes home might prove a tall task without the right type of disclosure.

Anyhow, if your question is: how much ‘salary’ did each JGR driver receive in 2024? The answer to that query won’t be too difficult to manage.

The pay ladder of Coach Gibbs’ top drivers

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When Forbes gave us a ‘peek under NASCAR’s financial hood’ in 2023, they revealed that Joe Gibbs Racing made $98.95 million in estimated sponsor revenue. Add to that the collective earnings from each of their four drivers at the end of each race, and rough calculations would put JGR’s annual earnings somewhere over 110 million dollars per year. An amount like that ensures that their payroll faces minimal discrepancies. And that holds for each Joe Gibbs Racing driver in 2024.

For starters, reports suggest Christopher Bell is the lowest-earning JGR wheelman with a salary ranging around $850,000 per year. With C Bell’s stellar performances in the seasons gone by, that number will surely increase in the years to come. Next up is Ty Gibbs, grandson of Coach himself, who draws a surprising salary reportedly close to a million dollars a year. That places him as the third-highest-paid driver among the four Joe Gibbs Racing teammates in 2024.

Departing Martin Truex Jr earned the second-highest with an annual payout close to $10.3 million. But with Chase Briscoe taking his place in 2025, the compensation numbers aren’t all that clear for the new driver. Finally, Denny Hamlin is unsurprisingly JGR’s highest earner with a reported yearly stipend amounting to $13.1 million. That technically also makes the #11 driver NASCAR’s second-highest salaryman after former teammate Kyle Busch, who apparently makes $16.9 million at Richard Childress Racing.

Money like that is no laughing matter at all for common folk. But it’s hard to argue against the notion that these high-speed risk-takers deserve every bit of the payout they receive in NASCAR. Because if we’re being honest, getting paid for laying your life on the line every weekend is a job only the bravest would dare to put themselves in.