How Much Do Car Racers Make? Real F1, NASCAR & IndyCar Pay
Car racers make anywhere from a few hundred dollars a race at the local level to more than $60 million a year at the top of Formula 1. The gap between the two is enormous, and it comes down to which series a driver races in, how many wins and sponsors they have, and whether they’re paid a salary at all.
In 2026, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull deal is worth an estimated $65 million, while a rookie on a short-track NASCAR Weekly Series can win a few hundred dollars for a night’s racing and still lose money on tires and entry fees. Most racers land somewhere in between, and how much they take home depends heavily on whether their series pays a real salary, splits prize money, or expects the driver to bring their own sponsorship money just to get a seat.
This guide breaks down real 2026 pay figures for Formula 1, NASCAR Cup Series, IndyCar, and NHRA drag racing, explains how a racer’s income is actually built (salary, prize money, and sponsorships), and covers what local and amateur racers realistically earn.
How Racer Pay Actually Works: Salary, Purse, and Sponsors
Unlike most jobs, a race car driver’s paycheck usually comes from three separate sources, not one. First is a base salary, paid by the team, which only exists for drivers good enough (or well-sponsored enough) to hold a full-time seat. Second is prize or purse money, a share of the winnings that gets split between the driver, the team owner, and crew depending on the series’ rules. Third, and often the largest piece for star drivers, is money from sponsors and endorsements that has nothing to do with race results at all.
That structure explains why racer pay varies so wildly. A driver with no salary and no sponsors is racing purely for prize money, which at lower levels can be smaller than what they spent on fuel and tires to get there. A driver with a strong sponsor portfolio can out-earn a faster rival who has no one backing them. Series that negotiate national TV deals (Formula 1, NASCAR) can pay real base salaries; smaller regional series mostly cannot, and drivers there often pay to race rather than get paid to race.
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Formula 1 Driver Salaries in 2026
Formula 1 pays the highest base salaries in motorsport by a wide margin, and 2026 is no exception. Teams don’t officially publish contract figures, but reporting from outlets that track the sport closely puts the top of the grid well into eight figures. These numbers are base pay only – they don’t include personal sponsorship or endorsement income, which can add tens of millions more for the biggest names.
| Driver | Team | Estimated 2026 Base Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | ~$65 million |
| Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | ~$60–70 million |
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | ~$34 million |
| George Russell | Mercedes | ~$34 million |
Below that top tier, most full-time F1 drivers earn somewhere between $2 million and $15 million a year, with rookies and drivers on smaller teams at the low end of that range. Even the lowest-paid full-time F1 seat still pays far more than a top NASCAR or IndyCar salary, which is part of why F1 is considered the pinnacle of paid motorsport.
NASCAR Cup Series Driver Pay
NASCAR’s Cup Series drivers earn a base salary from their team plus a percentage of the race purse, though NASCAR stopped publishing per-race purse breakdowns in 2016, so exact figures are harder to confirm than in F1. Based on team and industry reporting, Kyle Busch is currently the highest-paid Cup Series driver at roughly $16.9 million a year, with Denny Hamlin close behind at just over $13 million and Kyle Larson around $8 million.
One important distinction: general salary-survey sites often list a much lower average “NASCAR driver” salary, in the $75,000–$112,000 range. That figure isn’t wrong, but it’s measuring a completely different population – it blends in drivers from NASCAR’s lower-tier regional and weekly touring series, not the roughly 36 full-time Cup Series stars. A Cup Series champion and a driver on a NASCAR-sanctioned local short track are technically in the same sport, but their paychecks aren’t remotely comparable.
IndyCar Driver Earnings
IndyCar pays dramatically less than F1 or NASCAR at the top, and even less the further down the grid you go. Colton Herta is currently the series’ highest earner at roughly $7 million a year, with Pato O’Ward around $4 million and Scott Dixon in the $3.5–$4.5 million range. Put another way: Max Verstappen earns more in a single F1 race weekend than the average IndyCar driver earns in an entire season.
Drivers at the back of the IndyCar field can earn under $500,000 a year, and a meaningful number of seats in the series are held by “pay drivers” – racers who bring their own sponsorship money to cover a large part of the team’s costs in exchange for a seat, rather than being paid a salary by the team. The Indianapolis 500’s prize purse is also a major factor for IndyCar drivers specifically, since a strong finish there can add a significant one-time bonus on top of a driver’s regular season pay.
Drag Racing and NHRA Top Fuel Pay
NHRA Top Fuel is its own case. A hired driver – someone who doesn’t own the team – typically earns somewhere between $250,000 and $600,000 a year, though the full range across the sport runs from about $100,000 up to $1 million depending on experience, sponsorship backing, and results. Winning the NHRA championship adds a team bonus of roughly $500,000 from the points fund, and the driver usually keeps a pre-negotiated cut of that, on top of their regular pay.
Top Fuel and Funny Car are generally considered the highest-paying disciplines within drag racing, since sponsors are drawn to the sport’s headline speed and quarter-mile drama. Sportsman-level and grassroots drag racers, by contrast, mostly race for trophies and small purses funded by entry fees, similar to local oval-track racing.
What Do Local and Amateur Racers Make?
This is where the “all racers are rich” myth falls apart completely. At local short tracks and regional touring series, most drivers aren’t paid a salary at all. Prize money for a single feature race can run from a couple hundred dollars up to a few thousand for a bigger regional event, and that has to cover the entry fee, tires, fuel, and any damage from the night – which frequently leaves a driver with less money than they started with.
Most local and amateur racers keep a day job and race on weekends purely because they love it, funding their own equipment and travel out of pocket. It’s the same reason so many young drivers spend years racing karts and lower Formula series essentially unpaid, or even paying their own way, before a manufacturer or team decides they’re worth putting on salary.
Sponsorships, Endorsements, and Merchandise Income
For established racers, sponsorship money is often bigger than any salary or prize check. Drivers wear branded suits and helmets, appear in ads, and post about sponsor products on social media in exchange for annual deals that can range from a few thousand dollars for a local racer’s small business backer up to tens of millions for a Formula 1 star’s watch, apparel, or energy-drink partnership. Popularity and social media following now matter almost as much as results when brands decide who to sponsor.
Merchandise adds another layer on top – die-cast cars, team apparel, and signed memorabilia generate real income for popular drivers, particularly in NASCAR, where merchandise sales have historically been a significant revenue stream separate from race winnings. Media appearances, paid interviews, and motivational speaking engagements round out the picture for racers with enough name recognition to be worth booking.
Why Racer Pay Varies So Much
Car racing is brutally competitive, and only a small number of seats in any well-paying series exist at all. Sponsorship deals go to drivers who can prove they’ll win races and attract attention, which creates a chicken-and-egg problem for newcomers: you need results to attract sponsors, but you often need sponsor money to afford the equipment that produces results.
Careers can also be short. Injuries end some careers abruptly, and the physical and mental demands of racing at a high level mean many drivers retire earlier than athletes in other sports. Consistency and longevity matter enormously – a driver who stays competitive for a decade or more, rather than flaming out after a strong rookie season, tends to see their total career earnings compound significantly through both prize money and long-term sponsor relationships.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Car Racers Make a Lot of Money?
Some do, most don’t. Top Formula 1 and NASCAR Cup Series drivers earn millions a year through salary, prize money, and sponsorships, but the vast majority of racers – local, regional, and lower-tier series drivers – earn very little from racing itself and often fund their own careers.
How Much Does a Formula 1 Driver Make?
Top F1 drivers earn between roughly $30 million and $65 million a year in base salary alone, according to 2026 estimates, with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at the top. Mid-grid and rookie drivers typically earn between $2 million and $15 million, not counting personal sponsorship income.
How Much Do NASCAR Drivers Get Paid?
The highest-paid Cup Series drivers, like Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, earn between roughly $13 million and $17 million a year from salary and purse winnings combined. Mid-pack Cup Series drivers typically earn low-to-mid seven figures, while drivers in NASCAR’s lower touring series often earn far less – sometimes under $100,000 a year.
How Much Do IndyCar Drivers Make?
IndyCar’s highest earners, like Colton Herta, make around $7 million a year. Most full-time IndyCar drivers earn somewhere between $500,000 and $4 million, and drivers at the back of the grid can earn under $500,000, with some effectively paying for their own seat through sponsorship they bring to the team.
How Much Do Local or Amateur Racers Make?
Most local and amateur racers earn little to nothing from racing itself. A single feature-race win at a short track might pay a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, which often doesn’t fully cover entry fees, tires, and fuel for the night. The large majority of amateur racers fund their own racing out of a separate day job.
What Is the Highest-Paying Form of Car Racing?
Formula 1 pays the highest salaries in motorsport by a clear margin, with top drivers earning tens of millions a year in base pay before sponsorships. NASCAR Cup Series ranks second among mainstream series, followed by NHRA Top Fuel and IndyCar.
Conclusion
How much a car racer makes depends almost entirely on which series they race in and how far up the grid they’ve climbed. At the very top, Formula 1 and NASCAR Cup Series stars earn tens of millions a year between salary, prize money, and sponsorships. At the local and amateur level, most racers are lucky to break even on a given night, and many pay out of pocket for the privilege of competing at all.
What almost every paid racer has in common is that the money followed the results, not the other way around – sponsors and teams pay for drivers who’ve already proven they can win, which is why the climb from local track to a real racing salary takes most drivers years, if it happens at all.
