NASCAR Inflates Martinsville’s Cup Purse by $300,000 With a $6 Million Swell Over Xfinity Series

After the controversial race at Richmond last weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series is heading into yet another short-track race at Martinsville Speedway. Given how thrilling and eventful the short-track events have panned out so far, the Cook Out 400 is also expected to deliver more interesting stories and moments for the fans to enjoy.

While the drivers are competing for points, the monetary incentives will provide an additional boost for the drivers to go all out during the race. Speaking of the prize purse, NASCAR has decided to stick to its trend and bump the purse value for the Martinsville race.

The purse for the Martinsville Speedway race weekend was revealed

The 2024 Cup Series season has proved to be a success in terms of attracting consistent TV viewership. This positive run has allowed NASCAR to hand out better purse values for the events this season, and going into the weekend at Martinsville, NASCAR has once again bettered their offering compared to last season.

NASCAR journalist and FOX reporter, Bob Pockrass shared the purse value for all three NASCAR events this weekend via his X account. “Purses for Martinsville. All payouts, all positions, including contribution to year-end points fund, contingency awards, etc. … and for Cup, payouts to each charter team for participating and historical performance payouts: Cup: $7,669,028, Xfinity: $1,507,074, Truck: $746,572.”

Last year’s Cook Out 400 event at Martinsville offered a payout of $7,324,203. Comparing last year’s numbers to this year’s purse, NASCAR has bumped up the winnings by $344,825, which is indeed a big leap. Moreover, it’s a huge difference when compared to this year’s Xfinity Series event, the Cup event is $6 million richer.

Given how close the competition has been amongst the drivers, it is indeed hard to predict who will take home the prize money and the trophy for this Sunday’s race at Martinsville.

Front runners to win the NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway

If there is one driver who has cracked the code in finding the winning formula at short-track races this season, it is Denny Hamlin. With the perfect setup and the perfect driving conditions, Hamlin is surely among the top contenders to win Sunday’s race. Last season, he did manage to secure a top-five finish in both races, but this time around, he would want to end his race at the venue on a winning note.

Moving on, we have Martin Truex Jr, who must be feeling awful after being unable to seal off his win at Richmond Raceway. Despite not being able to secure a win, the #19 JGR driver is sitting at the top of the driver’s standings, so his consistent run and his good track record at the venue make him one of the favorites to win the race.

Kyle Larson is another driver who can make his case for bagging the win at Martinsville. The #5 HMS driver is placed in the second spot in the driver’s standings, with 14 points separating him from Truex Jr. In his last three starts at the venue, he had two top-5 finishes, including the win last season in the spring event. So there is a worthy Chevy driver to counter the aggression shown by the JGR Toyota in recent races.

Read More: NASCAR Slaps Under-Fire Joey Gase a $5,000 Fine for Richmond Bumper Throw