The $35.65 million that James will earn in 2019 (or $38 million average over the next four years) is more than the 2018 Indianapolis 500 purse and all the full-time IndyCar drivers’ salaries added together. He earned $17.5 million in 2018 by Forbes’ count from his Hendrick Motorsports salary and his cut of winnings and licensing. That was in the early 2000s and a lot of people think salaries have gone down since then. Johnson is Nascar’s highest-paid driver for the second time in three years. Dennis would reportedly come out of pocket to the tune of $1 million per round to acquire Senna's services which, as the Briton would later admit, came at the expense of McLaren's 1994 season due to pulling money out of the team's R&D budget to pay the Brazilian's hefty retainer. "I would … Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. I've profiled a bunch of athletes that go by one name: LeBron, Shaq, Danica and others. Nascar has suffered from the retirement in recent years of many of its biggest names, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Danica Patrick. said racing legend and 1978 Formula One world champion Mario Andretti, as he scoffed at the incredibly low pay-versus-peril scale that seems to rule the landscape today. I am a senior editor at Forbes and focused mainly on the business of sports and our annual franchise valuations. Here's the link to the article... https://racer.com/2018/07/05/miller-wheres-the-payday/. The 2012 Cup champion invested more than $10 million to launch an advanced contract manufacturing company, Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing, this year. While the salaries for NBA and NFL players have exploded over the past 20 years, the market for IndyCar drivers has actually gone down. Below are the top-earning drivers in 2018. And lots of their salary is based on bonuses like per point 10k or 1.5mil per win or 150k for a fastest lap etc. He proceeded to win 83 races and a record-tying seven Cup championships with Lowe’s. Busch won eight Cup races last year and leads the standings halfway through the 2019 season. For that IndyCar driver, across the 16-race 2012 season, he earned $31,250 per event. What gets a rookie and what is the current ceiling? 4 car gets hefty sponsorship thanks to his consistent performance over the past decade, which includes top three finishes in the overall Cup standings seven of the past nine years. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. The home improvement chain signed on as primary sponsor of the No. The days of the $10 million driver salary are just about done (Jimmie Johnson is the last remaining one, according to multiple sources). For LeBron, his per-event pay was $213,963 in 2012. The gain was a welcome change for the race series where ratings are off nearly 50% over the past decade. Johnson was Nascar's top earner in 2018, but it was the worst season of his career, as he finished 14th overall and didn't win a race for the first time in his career. Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 - Practice. As Robin Miller had said many times, in 1993 the pay in CART was high enough to lure over F1 reigning champ Nigel Mansell. Thanks, F1 driver salaries aren't neccesarily made public either. Only the top Indycar drivers are making a million dollars a year. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. I also started our biennial B-School rankings; annual features on the Best Places for Business (metros, states and countries); and America's Best Banks. I will add this article to the pile. It was good for those of us who drove during those times, but those kinds of salaries are a fantasy today. Recommended For You . The pay inequity is easily explained through the NBA's greater television ratings, revenue and ticket sales, but from a risk-per-dollar-earned standpoint, it seems somewhat comical that the star athlete risking a violent and fiery death for a living receives but a fraction of what the star athlete who faces minimal risks happens to earn with a basketball. The season also marked the end of the 17-year partnership between Johnson and his crew chief Chad Knaus. Digital financial services company Ally Financial inked a deal last fall to be the primary sponsor for all 38 races on the Nascar schedule for the No. Our product picks are editor-tested, expert-approved. The drivers below are listed 1-33 in finishing order. Last year when he won the Nascar Cup title, Logano fulfilled the immense promise he first showed on a big stage when he became the youngest winner ever of a Nationwide Series race in 2008 just after his 18th birthday. 4 car were second highest in Nascar last year. If you're making over a million in Indycar you're rich. As I said in another thread not too long ago Max Chilton earned more in one Indy 500 then what he was getting paid when he was in F1. Unlike stick-and-ball sports where revealing the annual salaries of the players is almost expected, that odd practice has never been adopted in motor racing, but with a bit of historical context and a few pieces of information made public throughout the years, it's clear that the money on offer to drive in F1, Indy cars and even sports cars is married to the strength of the dollar, pound, yen and euro. Honda entered as the defending Manufacturers' Cup champion. Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Advance Auto Parts Clash. "I made that back in 1972!" I also spend a lot of my time digging into what athletes. Elliott ranks among top-earning drivers for the first time thanks to a new four-year contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports that started in 2018 and pushed his base salary into the mid-seven figures range. Browse through latest information on your favorite IndyCar drivers, including full biographies, latest news, high-res photos and high quality videos If there's one form of motorsport where the per-event scale exceeds what a LeBron James earns on straight salary, it's F1. Larson lost one of his car's sponsors, DC Solar, when the FBI raided its headquarters and the home of the company's founders in December. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, 27 Most Fun Used Cars You Can Buy for Under $5000, 28 Fun Sports Cars That Are Surprisingly Cheap, Tactical Watches We Like at Various Price Points, Fast and Furious 9 Has Already Been Delayed Again, 16 Tools to Get You Started Working on Your Car, This Might Be the World's Cleanest 2005 WRX STI, Art of Rally Is a Beautiful, Minimal Racing Game. Only the top Indycar drivers are making a million dollars a year. Don't even talk about $5 million a year because it doesn't exist (even though it's rumored Dixon is being offered $8 million by McLaren to drive for them in 2019). Press J to jump to the feed. It was posted in this sub just a few days ago. Don't even talk about $5 million a year because it doesn't exist (even though it's rumored Dixon is being offered $8 million by McLaren to drive for them in 2019).