XPost: rec.autos.sport.nascar, rec.autos.sport.indy

Here's How Much It Costs To Run An Underfunded NASCAR Race Team

Alanis King
Today 11:42amFiled to: NASCAR
49.6K
84
3

An entry from BK Racing in the 2018 Daytona 500.
Photo: AP Photo/Terry Renna

Costs in NASCAR are a murky thing. The sport stopped publicizing prize
money in its top series in 2016, teams often shy away from budget talks
and a common belief is that younger drivers will make less money than
the older ones. But one team had to disclose how much it spent to make
it through the 2016 season.

While the costs aren’t often made public, things don’t look great: TV ratings are down, tracks have been removing seats for years, NASCAR is
trying to cut costs for teams to operate, and, while there are no clear numbers, it would be hard to argue that overall cash flow through the
sport is higher than in the past. After ESPN reported purse money was
stagnant in the top Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2015, NASCAR
stopped releasing purse information the next year.

That doesn’t mean underfunded teams are out there running discarded
beaters. ESPN obtained documents with Cup Series team BK Racing’s
spending as it goes through bankruptcy proceedings, and reports that the
team ran on just over $1 million in sponsorship in 2015 and $1.5 million
in 2016. BK spent a lot more than that, with recorded losses of $10.1
million in 2015 and $8.5 million the next year.

But before we get to the cost details, let’s put this in perspective:
While NASCAR teams aren’t quick to say how much they spend, not all
racing series are as shy. Audi and Porsche’s incredibly expensive former
Le Mans Prototype 1 programs in the World Endurance Championship hovered
around $200 million a year and Toyota runs the series with about $100
million, Ferrari’s Formula One budget in 2013 was nearly $500 million
while some of the back-marker teams spent under $50 million, the top
IndyCar team in 2013 spent $15 million, and Formula E had a budget cap
of $3.5 million in 2016.

That’s a huge range of spending across different series, and shows what
all of them require to be successful. BK Racing spent nearly $20 million
in NASCAR’s top tier in 2016, showing the lower end of costs in the land
of the American V8s.

ESPN reports that BK Racing fielded 82 cars in 2016, with two running
full time during the 36-race season and a third running nine races. The
team raced four cars in the Daytona 500. Racing Reference statistics
show the team fielded seven drivers in 2016, and had one top-10 finish
overall. The team’s average finish in seven years of competing in the
Cup Series is 31.1 in a roughly 40-car field.

BK Racing won about $7.8 million in prize money that year, which made up
almost 79 percent of its total revenue since the team had such small
amounts coming in from sponsorship. Usually, as ESPN reports, that
revenue share is the opposite for top teams—most of the money comes from sponsors.

BK Racing spent more than $18.1 million to run the 2016 season,
according to ESPN. Here are the some of the biggest expenses, from the
story:

- $5,896,898 (27.5 percent) on payroll and wages — with $3,733,329 in salaries and wages, including other hourly wages and overtime;
$1,033,471 of contract payroll (pit crews, spotter); and $467,736 in
driver payroll.

- $4,093,761 (19.1 percent) on its engine lease.

- $1,916,327 (8.9 percent) on tires.

- $1,801,822 (8.4 percent) on travel, including $927,160 for airfare and $432,883 for hotels.

ESPN has more information on other expenses like brakes, transmissions,
entry fees, decals and licenses, as well as how much BK Racing owes to
its creditors.

NASCAR isn’t cheap, but, like other series show, running a lower-funded
team isn’t as expensive as it could be. And while everyone is quick to
talk about how much less money there is to go around in NASCAR, BK
Racing’s bankruptcy filings are a humbling reminder that even the most underfunded of teams pay their drivers a higher annual salary than most
of us will ever make.

That’s a great note to finish out your workweek on. Just remember that
next time the boss asks you to stay late, they’re not paying you nearly
as much to be there as a bankrupt NASCAR team would.

RECOMMENDED STORIES

This Is How Much It Costs To Run A Professional Race Team

The Coolest Racing Series In The World Got Too Expensive

How To Understand The Daytona 500 And NASCAR In 2018
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alanis King
Alanis King is a staff writer at Jalopnik.

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LotsO'Cylinders
Alanis King
3/23/18 12:10pm
The engine lease and tires spending amounts surprised me! Seems high
but, well, okay.....

Buffalo Mike
LotsO'Cylinders
3/23/18 12:32pm
Tires are 500$ each.

BKosher84
LotsO'Cylinders
3/23/18 12:36pm
The engines come directly from Toyota, who develops them themselves..
That shit ain’t cheap.

syaieya
LotsO'Cylinders
3/23/18 12:40pm
Going off numbers i heard in the arca pits. Thats averaging 2 and a half
sets of tires every race per car. And im sure half that engine budget is
super speedway cars

effingnewguy
BKosher84
3/23/18 12:42pm
I find it hilarious that Toyota had to develop a cast iron, pushrod,
carburated V8.

Equana
Alanis King
3/23/18 11:57am
Best way to make a small fortune in racing is to start with a massive
fortune and work down.

When your local circle track racer will spend $12,000 on a new engine to
win a $300 prize....

When your local SCCA racer will spend $10,000 a year running an Improved Touring class car to win a $10 trophy plaque....

When your local autocrosser will rack up $5000 a year in tire and
travels costs for 20 minutes of total track time in a year for a few $5 trophys.....

You can figure out really quickly that Racers be Crazy!

geeps
Equana
3/23/18 12:33pm
When your friend bench races on In-N-Out free wifi about a cammed LS for
+ internet points.....

Obfuscatio: philosopher at large
Equana
3/23/18 1:08pm
When your local autocrosser will rack up $5000 a year in tire and
travels costs for 20 minutes of total track time in a year for a few $5 trophys.....

How much do major league sports fans pay for season’s tickets, parking,
food & beverages, and travel to and from the venue... and they don’t
even play the game?

Now who’s crazy?

Equana
Obfuscatio: philosopher at large
3/23/18 1:21pm
Sports fans at least get a couple of hours or more of entertainment at
each event for their dollars. Adds up to many hours over the course of
the season.

The participation part of the autocrosser’s sport is a total of 20
minutes over the year but the real entertainment is hangin’ with their car-friends.

Note: I’m a sports fan that held season college basketball tickets for
30 years, autocrossed seriously for 6 years, and SCCA raced for 17 years
after getting finding out how much more fun a 25 minute sprint race is
than 3, 45 second autocross runs.

I fit “crazy” broadly across that spectrum.

Equana
geeps
3/23/18 1:25pm
At least it’s FREE! Now if he’s making a little campfire with $100 bills
to get the actual experience...

Wild Weasel
Alanis King
3/23/18 11:52am
Who spends all that money to run a back-market team? I honestly don’t understand that. I mean... is there some billionaire doing this just for
kicks?

If I had millions of dollars, certainly I’d piss a lot of it away to go
play with cars... but running a race team doesn’t even seem like that
much personal fun.

BigBlock440
Wild Weasel
3/23/18 12:12pm
They had 7 drivers and a top-10 finish. They probably thought they had a chance. Or they’re money laundering.

jcluttrell
BigBlock440
3/23/18 12:38pm
money laundering 100%

Scot Zediker despises all organic meatbags, except the Master of course. BigBlock440
3/23/18 12:58pm
If they’re averaging a finish of 31st, they’re beating someone.

Wild Weasel
Scot Zediker despises all organic meatbags, except the Master of course. 3/23/18 1:02pm
It doesn’t matter if you’re beating anyone though. As an owner, what are you getting out of it? What’s the value for your money? To say you beat
some even worse team?

Do they go in thinking they’re gonna be Hendrick or Gibbs and turn it
into something actually profitable or at least memorable?

I just don’t get it. If it’s me, I put together an IMSA team so at least
I can get in a car and give it the ol’ college try.

Andrew Nier
Alanis King
3/23/18 12:03pm
I have to respect the fact that NASCAR teams are still paying drivers to
race, even the backmarkers, rather than relying on drivers who bring
their own money. Not saying there aren’t drivers bringing money to the
table, Aric Almirola and Smithfield Foods for example, but at least it’s
not as prevalent as other forms of Motorsport.

BigBlock440
Andrew Nier
3/23/18 12:09pm
Or Paul Menard.

Andrew Nier
BigBlock440
3/23/18 12:25pm
Very true, but at least they aren’t terrible drivers. I think the
closest to a ride buyer in modern NASCAR was Brian Scott. He ran over
300 races over 10 years in top tier equipment and won all of two truck
races. It felt like he crashed half the time, but sponsorship from
family-owned businesses kept him going.

jcluttrell
Andrew Nier
3/23/18 12:36pm
All top level drivers MUST bring in sponsorship money. The last holdout
was Jimmy Johnson.

Andrew Nier
3/23/18 12:57pm
There aren’t many ride buyers in Monster Energy Cup, but from what I’ve been reading lately they are becoming more prevalent in Xfinity and the
truck series.

Margin Of Error
Alanis King
3/23/18 11:46am
Crack Pipe.
A Camry with real headlights is 30K

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XPost: rec.autos.sport.nascar, rec.autos.sport.indy

On 3/23/2018 8:16 PM, a425couple wrote:

Here's How Much It Costs To Run An Underfunded NASCAR Race Team

Alanis King
Today 11:42amFiled to: NASCAR
49.6K
84
3

An entry from BK Racing in the 2018 Daytona 500.
Photo: AP Photo/Terry Renna

Costs in NASCAR are a murky thing. The sport stopped publicizing prize
money in its top series in 2016, teams often shy away from budget talks
and a common belief is that younger drivers will make less money than
the older ones. But one team had to disclose how much it spent to make
it through the 2016 season.

While the costs aren’t often made public, things don’t look great: TV ratings are down, tracks have been removing seats for years, NASCAR is
trying to cut costs for teams to operate, and, while there are no clear numbers, it would be hard to argue that overall cash flow through the
sport is higher than in the past. After ESPN reported purse money was stagnant in the top Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2015, NASCAR
stopped releasing purse information the next year.

That doesn’t mean underfunded teams are out there running discarded beaters. ESPN obtained documents with Cup Series team BK Racing’s
spending as it goes through bankruptcy proceedings, and reports that the
team ran on just over $1 million in sponsorship in 2015 and $1.5 million
in 2016. BK spent a lot more than that, with recorded losses of $10.1
million in 2015 and $8.5 million the next year.

But before we get to the cost details, let’s put this in perspective:
While NASCAR teams aren’t quick to say how much they spend, not all
racing series are as shy. Audi and Porsche’s incredibly expensive former
Le Mans Prototype 1 programs in the World Endurance Championship hovered around $200 million a year and Toyota runs the series with about $100 million, Ferrari’s Formula One budget in 2013 was nearly $500 million
while some of the back-marker teams spent under $50 million, the top
IndyCar team in 2013 spent $15 million, and Formula E had a budget cap
of $3.5 million in 2016.

That’s a huge range of spending across different series, and shows what
all of them require to be successful. BK Racing spent nearly $20 million
in NASCAR’s top tier in 2016, showing the lower end of costs in the land
of the American V8s.

ESPN reports that BK Racing fielded 82 cars in 2016, with two running
full time during the 36-race season and a third running nine races. The
team raced four cars in the Daytona 500. Racing Reference statistics
show the team fielded seven drivers in 2016, and had one top-10 finish overall. The team’s average finish in seven years of competing in the
Cup Series is 31.1 in a roughly 40-car field.

BK Racing won about $7.8 million in prize money that year, which made up almost 79 percent of its total revenue since the team had such small
amounts coming in from sponsorship. Usually, as ESPN reports, that
revenue share is the opposite for top teams—most of the money comes from sponsors.

BK Racing spent more than $18.1 million to run the 2016 season,
according to ESPN. Here are the some of the biggest expenses, from the
story:

- $5,896,898 (27.5 percent) on payroll and wages — with $3,733,329 in salaries and wages, including other hourly wages and overtime;
$1,033,471 of contract payroll (pit crews, spotter); and $467,736 in
driver payroll.

- $4,093,761 (19.1 percent) on its engine lease.

- $1,916,327 (8.9 percent) on tires.

- $1,801,822 (8.4 percent) on travel, including $927,160 for airfare and $432,883 for hotels.

ESPN has more information on other expenses like brakes, transmissions,
entry fees, decals and licenses, as well as how much BK Racing owes to
its creditors.

NASCAR isn’t cheap, but, like other series show, running a lower-funded team isn’t as expensive as it could be. And while everyone is quick to
talk about how much less money there is to go around in NASCAR, BK
Racing’s bankruptcy filings are a humbling reminder that even the most underfunded of teams pay their drivers a higher annual salary than most
of us will ever make.

That’s a great note to finish out your workweek on. Just remember that
next time the boss asks you to stay late, they’re not paying you nearly
as much to be there as a bankrupt NASCAR team would.

RECOMMENDED STORIES

This Is How Much It Costs To Run A Professional Race Team

The Coolest Racing Series In The World Got Too Expensive

How To Understand The Daytona 500 And NASCAR In 2018
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alanis King
Alanis King is a staff writer at Jalopnik.

EmailTwitterPosts
Discussion
Reply
Community (71)
Pending
Sort by:
Popular

LotsO'Cylinders
Alanis King
3/23/18 12:10pm
The engine lease and tires spending amounts surprised me! Seems high
but, well, okay.....

Buffalo Mike
LotsO'Cylinders
3/23/18 12:32pm
Tires are 500$ each.

BKosher84
LotsO'Cylinders
3/23/18 12:36pm
The engines come directly from Toyota, who develops them themselves..
That shit ain’t cheap.

syaieya
LotsO'Cylinders
3/23/18 12:40pm
Going off numbers i heard in the arca pits. Thats averaging 2 and a half
sets of tires every race per car. And im sure half that engine budget is super speedway cars

effingnewguy
BKosher84
3/23/18 12:42pm
I find it hilarious that Toyota had to develop a cast iron, pushrod, carburated V8.

Equana
Alanis King
3/23/18 11:57am
Best way to make a small fortune in racing is to start with a massive
fortune and work down.

When your local circle track racer will spend $12,000 on a new engine to
win a $300 prize....

When your local SCCA racer will spend $10,000 a year running an Improved Touring class car to win a $10 trophy plaque....

When your local autocrosser will rack up $5000 a year in tire and
travels costs for 20 minutes of total track time in a year for a few $5 trophys.....

You can figure out really quickly that Racers be Crazy!

geeps
Equana
3/23/18 12:33pm
When your friend bench races on In-N-Out free wifi about a cammed LS for
+ internet points.....

Obfuscatio: philosopher at large
Equana
3/23/18 1:08pm
When your local autocrosser will rack up $5000 a year in tire and
travels costs for 20 minutes of total track time in a year for a few $5 trophys.....

How much do major league sports fans pay for season’s tickets, parking, food & beverages, and travel to and from the venue... and they don’t
even play the game?

Now who’s crazy?

Equana
Obfuscatio: philosopher at large
3/23/18 1:21pm
Sports fans at least get a couple of hours or more of entertainment at
each event for their dollars. Adds up to many hours over the course of
the season.

The participation part of the autocrosser’s sport is a total of 20
minutes over the year but the real entertainment is hangin’ with their car-friends.

Note: I’m a sports fan that held season college basketball tickets for
30 years, autocrossed seriously for 6 years, and SCCA raced for 17 years after getting finding out how much more fun a 25 minute sprint race is
than 3, 45 second autocross runs.

I fit “crazy” broadly across that spectrum.

Equana
geeps
3/23/18 1:25pm
At least it’s FREE! Now if he’s making a little campfire with $100 bills to get the actual experience...

Wild Weasel
Alanis King
3/23/18 11:52am
Who spends all that money to run a back-market team? I honestly don’t understand that. I mean... is there some billionaire doing this just for kicks?

If I had millions of dollars, certainly I’d piss a lot of it away to go play with cars... but running a race team doesn’t even seem like that
much personal fun.

BigBlock440
Wild Weasel
3/23/18 12:12pm
They had 7 drivers and a top-10 finish. They probably thought they had a chance. Or they’re money laundering.

jcluttrell
BigBlock440
3/23/18 12:38pm
money laundering 100%

Scot Zediker despises all organic meatbags, except the Master of course. BigBlock440
3/23/18 12:58pm
If they’re averaging a finish of 31st, they’re beating someone.

Wild Weasel
Scot Zediker despises all organic meatbags, except the Master of course. 3/23/18 1:02pm
It doesn’t matter if you’re beating anyone though. As an owner, what are you getting out of it? What’s the value for your money? To say you beat some even worse team?

Do they go in thinking they’re gonna be Hendrick or Gibbs and turn it
into something actually profitable or at least memorable?

I just don’t get it. If it’s me, I put together an IMSA team so at least I can get in a car and give it the ol’ college try.

Andrew Nier
Alanis King
3/23/18 12:03pm
I have to respect the fact that NASCAR teams are still paying drivers to race, even the backmarkers, rather than relying on drivers who bring
their own money. Not saying there aren’t drivers bringing money to the table, Aric Almirola and Smithfield Foods for example, but at least it’s not as prevalent as other forms of Motorsport.

BigBlock440
Andrew Nier
3/23/18 12:09pm
Or Paul Menard.

Andrew Nier
BigBlock440
3/23/18 12:25pm
Very true, but at least they aren’t terrible drivers. I think the
closest to a ride buyer in modern NASCAR was Brian Scott. He ran over
300 races over 10 years in top tier equipment and won all of two truck
races. It felt like he crashed half the time, but sponsorship from family-owned businesses kept him going.

jcluttrell
Andrew Nier
3/23/18 12:36pm
All top level drivers MUST bring in sponsorship money. The last holdout
was Jimmy Johnson.

Andrew Nier
3/23/18 12:57pm
There aren’t many ride buyers in Monster Energy Cup, but from what I’ve been reading lately they are becoming more prevalent in Xfinity and the
truck series.

Margin Of Error
Alanis King
3/23/18 11:46am
Crack Pipe.
A Camry with real headlights is 30K

Load more comments
Show more comments

https://jalopnik.com/heres-how-much-it-costs-to-run-an-underfunded-nascar-ra-1823985559

ctothefuture
Alanis King
3/23/18 2:58pm
Everyone on reddit seems to have a solution to this problem, I’ll
present mine.

NASCAR needs to do several things to bring the racing product up to par,
be cheaper to run, and more enjoyable for fans.

Make the cars setup for low downforce, high horsepower. The best racing
in the history of NASCAR was with flying bricks at 200 MPH. Oval racing
isn’t fun when it’s follow the leader for 200 laps.

Make spec bodies, engines, and drivetrains. Seriously, how hard would it
be to have NASCAR become a spec series? It would save MILLIONS in R&D,
allow smaller teams to be more profitable, and allow sponsors to put in
less cash per race allowing more opportunities.

The governing body of NASCAR needs to get their shit together. I love
NASCAR, I will always be an apologist for NASCAR in the real world, but
they are driving me nuts. Name me one major sport in the USA that has drastically changed their Championship format several times in 15 years.

NASCAR thinks a knee jerk reaction will solve their problems, when all
it does is alienate fans. Make it cheaper, make it easier, and make it
simple. They will come, they always do.

Also, FUCK BRIAN FRANCE.

4
Reply

DoctorsTARDIS
rctothefuture
3/23/18 3:46pm
The best racing was never at 200 MPH.

It’s at the short tracks.

2
Reply

rctothefuture
DoctorsTARDIS
3/23/18 4:24pm
Any Daytona 500 from 88-05 would disagree with your statement slightly.

1
Reply

WildcatsLodge
rctothefuture
3/23/18 5:43pm
+1 Fuck Brian France

It’s always the third generation that fucks things up for everybody. See also: George, Tony

1
Reply

DoctorsTARDIS
rctothefuture
3/23/18 6:10pm
I’ll give you the restrictor plate tracks are usually great racing, as
can be the road courses. But I still stand by the *best* being the short tracks.

It’s those “intermediate” tracks that there are SO MANY OF that more often than not put on a poor show.

Reply

InfiniteAntar
Alanis King
3/23/18 12:04pm
That doesn’t mean underfunded teams are out there running discarded beaters.

Am I the only one who would actually start watching NASCAR if they only
ran discarded beaters?

13
Reply

WRXforScience
Alanis King
3/23/18 11:54am
$1,916,327 (8.9 percent) on tires.

That makes me feel a lot better about my tire budget for the last couple
of years.

RXforScience
3/23/18 12:55pm
I remember a few years ago seeing an article in Car & Driver about start-and-park teams in what was then the Nationwide Series. One of them
was Morgan Shepherd, and his usual reason for retiring from a race was “handling.” He explained it thusly:

“I only bring one set of tires on a race weekend, and when they’re wore out, the car don’t handle.”

Left Lane is for Passing
Alanis King
3/23/18 12:21pm
BK Racing is funneling that drug money....only explanation for average
finish of 32 and a deficit of $10 million

Manwich
Alanis King
3/23/18 12:55pm
This reminds me of “Project Luser” in the world of Dilbert:

http://dilbert.com/strip/1998-03-26

AdamVIP
Alanis King
3/23/18 4:21pm
So assuming all drivers on their team are paid the same rate (probably
not really), there were 4 drivers total (possible but maybe not), and
each race paid the same total (Probably not), drivers 1 and 2 made
$190,046.20 that year, driver 3 made $47,511.54 and driver 4 made $5,279.06.

Not too bad.

Reply

NotLewisHamilton
Alanis King
3/23/18 10:45pm
Boss: “Edwards? I need you to finish up those spreadsheets before you
leave for the weekend.”

Edwards:”Are you paying me NASCAR money?”

Boss:”What? No...”

Edwards: “I’m outta here.”

Reply

Osmodious
Alanis King
3/23/18 5:49pm
My favorite racing joke was brought to mind by this article...

“Know how to make a small fortune racing? .... Start with a large fortune.”

Reply

Jeff Pulaski
Alanis King
3/23/18 11:38pm
They need to go back to places like North Wilkesboro and Rockingham that already have the correct number of seats.


Carbon Fiber Sasquatch
Alanis King
3/23/18 12:53pm
I have a solution https://oppositelock.kinja.com/new-idea-for-a-racing-series-1823732468

Jayvincent
Alanis King
3/23/18 7:38pm
It costs everything. Every. Damn. Thing. That’s why its a hobby, not a profession.

Reply

heavysquad
Alanis King
3/23/18 12:55pm
1.5 Million for drivers, spotters and pit crew, who gets the other 3.8
million?

Reply

offyatindy
Alanis King
3/23/18 6:05pm
IndyCar sounds like a bargain !

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