If you receive that email, would you mind sending me a DM here with the details? It would be much appreciated!
The fact that NHRA has not published the purse info in a public forum for years tells us a lot. The purses are embarrassingly small for the expenses involved. But this is the reality as there just isn't much money in drag racing these days. We don't have any real TV deal which pays the freight for all the wealthy sports. Indycar purses are also quite small (except for the Indy 500, of course). But, in exchange, Indycar pays the top teams (is it 25 or so teams?) a decent flat sum each year to help their finances.
yes. it helps a lot. they are actually now using a charter deal much like nascar. you have a group of owners and a set amount
Where does the funding for Indycar come from? I don't know much about their financial model, but I don't believe they have a TV deal that pays them big money, and I don't think their ratings are too different from NHRA's.
don't know how it's funded. i agree, i think you're right about their tv deal/s and ratings, although i did a quick search on their
Yes, that is amazing. But it's because they still get very high ratings for that race. It's the first race of the year, and there's nothing else going on sports-wise this time of year to compete. And yet they continue to put on an extremely poor show at Daytona because the drivers refuse to stay the hell out of each other's way. It is a guarantee that there will be 4 cautions - as always - in the last 20 laps from wrecks, and a green-white-checkered for the last lap for a big snooze-fest of a finish. Woopee.
You're correct as far as the numbers go. But as I'm sure you're aware of, a 2002 dollar is now worth 55 cents. The way things are going, NHRA may resort to handing out gift cards to the winners and it might not be long before my little used car dealership will be able to assume the role of NHRA's title sponsor.
and take home last place money which averages around $100,000. Do that for a season and you can bank some pretty good coin with relatively little expense.
Don't remember the wording of the rule but Nascar ended the start and park a few years ago.You're correct as far as the numbers go. But as I'm sure you're aware of, a 2002 dollar is now worth 55 cents. The way things are going, NHRA may resort to handing out gift cards to the winners and it might not be long before my little used car dealership will be able to assume the role of NHRA's title sponsor.
It's a shame. We all know that NHRA can't match NASCAR's purses and why it can't. But what they pay the pros now won't even cover the expense of getting a top flight pro team and all its equipment to the track and back, let alone actually start the car and make a pass. It's getting to the point to where the only way to survive nitro racing without sponsorship is to run a total shadetree operation and count on R1 loser money.
NASCAR poor-boys used to and may still do this all the time. Get qualified 40th, drop out on Lap 1 with an "unknown vibration"
