Nitromater
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Crew chief pay?
- Thread starter DanTheFan
- Start date
Kyle Wurtzel, we all know its the drivers that get huge money....
ZWeinstein
Nitro Member
All I know is Im sure Grubby was able to add bacon to his cheeseburger after Sonoma.
Topfuel386
Nitro Member
Kyle Wurtzel, we all know its the drivers that get huge money....
Lol. Unfortunately for myself that answer is I wish.
...and fries
Sounds far fetched to me too but stop to consider Dale Armstrong was said to have been paid $300,000 30+ years ago...it's said JF paid Mike Neff $1 million which could be BS but that's what's out there. Some of y'all would know more than I would but it doesn't matter. No crew chief is going to post their salary. I don't have any nitro to bet anyway.
LasVegas87
Nitro Member
Grubnic put 0.066 on the field yesterday. That car moves so hard on the back half of the track (indicated by the big speeds). Truly impressive.
The 'double step' mid race firing that changed Top Fuel.
The 'double step' mid race firing that changed Top Fuel.
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That double step seems to have created a Monster!
5150 mechanic
Nitro Member
I thought I read even back then he wanted to tune more than drive.
You are correct...the Director of IT at Kalitta back in the day...Grubby lol
changed Top Fuel ??? . . . . . . Mr. Torrence might disagree with that statement !!!
LasVegas87
Nitro Member
No disrespect to Torrence or his brain trust. My reference was to the performance (ET and MPH records) that the Grubnic combination holds.
Ramjet
Nitro Member
It is very possible that the countdown will be decided on PARTS attrition and not who can run the best. You may soon see more teams having problems because of running marginal parts since the supply chain isn’t doing very well. Teams that have a good supply of “backup stuff” put away are in the best shape. The low car count in the Western Swing could be that people had to decide if passing on these races was the best plan for later in the year as much as the travel cost or both.
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I think you would need to work backwards to try to guess a crew chief's salary. What is an average budget for a fuel team these days, really? $5M? Let's assume that for a minute. No way are you going to be spending 10% of your total yearly budget on one salary. You have so many more mind crushing expenses - 10-15 more salaries, trucks, insurance diesel fuel, parts, tires, nitro, travel, motels, food, uniforms.....The list is never ending. This isn't F1. I would assume any winnings get dispersed as well. Maybe out of winnings 20% goes back into the account. The other 80% gets divided up with X% of that going to the crew chief(s) and the rest going to the crew. Don't really know, just speculating what it costs to run any business. I think it is a very interesting question and wish we had more information on real costs for this crazy sport we love.
Oz_NHRA_Fan
Nitro Member
It’s not about responsibility though, it’s about revenue. The winner’s check for a championship is $500k plus whatever the race to race winnings are so the most the team is likely to generate is let’s say $1m in winnings maybe $4m in sponsorship (based on it costing $4m to run a top flight nitro team), so at best it’s a $5m business. You wouldn’t pay any one employee 20-25% of total budget. I’m not suggesting you’re saying this rather I’m just trying to articulate what would be feasible for the budget allocated.
Of course this is all speculation but I would think $250-500k for a crew chief and probably another $500k in wages for the rest of the staff is probably about right.
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