Top 5 NASCAR Cup Series Driver Salaries: Compare with F1 …

The biggest drivers entered in the NASCAR Cup Series are multi-millionaires, but their incomes have declined this year and, generally speaking, their profits have been declining from the previous decade. On the side of the teams, they have struggled to make a profit for a few years, and this is not because of the upheavals undergone by the management of the Covid-19. We have to go back to the 2008 recession to see the beginning of the drop in income, for both star drivers and teams.

The previous decade was marked by a sharp drop in attendance by the public to events, a drop in television audiences and a decrease in dollars brought in by corporate sponsorships.

Things should have gotten better this year, with a restructuring of NASCAR’s operations and its schedule of events that looked like it could turn the ship around. But the problems related to Covid-19 have arrived. NASCAR still had a very interesting 2020 season. Although there is less money on the table than at the beginning of the century, we see that few teams have closed for 10 years, although the budgets with which they have to contend are more limited.

In comparison with Formula 1, we also note that, according to figures put forward by Forbes, the most popular drivers in the NACAR Cup series are far from being… poor children! Here is a little comparison. Note, however, that Forbes compiled the salary and sponsorship contracts for NASCAR drivers while the only salary is presented for F1 drivers.

The amounts are in US dollars and it is interesting to note that the 2020 NASCAR Cup champion, Chase Elliott, is not among the 5 best paid, unlike F1 where Lewis Hamilton is largely in the lead in this area as well!

NASCAR Cup
1) Kyle Busch: 17.8 million
2) Jimmie Johnson: 17.6 million
3) Denny Hamlin: 14.6 million
4) Kevin Harvick: 12.2 million
5) Martin Truex Jr: 11.5 million

Formula 1
1) Lewis Hamilton: 47 million
2) Sebastian Vettel: 35 million
3) Daniel Ricciardo: 20 million
4) Max Verstappen: 16 million
5) Charles Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas: 9 million