Collector Car Corner: NASCAR’s Vanishing Payout Transparency – Why Fans Deserve to Know What Teams Earn; More ‘Charter’ Woes

By Greg Zyla —

For more than 40 years, yours truly wrote specifically about the business of racing. I never once covered a race lap by lap or used up media room space utilized for the working media that did cover the races. Be it my Question and Answer (Q&A) monthly interviews for Performance Racing Industry Magazine (PRI, over 30 years of interviews) or my weekly “Racing Briefcase” for National Speed Sport News, my motor racing press avocation kept me busy and professionally fulfilled.

Those who still follow me weekly notice that I don’t write much about NASCAR anymore, mainly because there is more personal gratification in writing about collector cars and auto nostalgia instead of the status of modern NASCAR racing, where there are always more negative “goings on” than positive.

Don’t get me wrong; I still enjoy watching all the races on TV and am still extremely interested in the day-to-day NASCAR happenings. My concerns deal with how NASCAR has changed over the decades, as listed in last week’s column about the so-called charters.

This week, I’ll touch on another negative concerning NASCAR, and it has to do with NASCAR no longer listing the driver/ team winnings after each race, as they did for many decades. I was always extremely interested to see a listing and detailed breakdown of what each driver and team earned after the checkered flag fell. You can check the “bible” of motor racing lists, called www.racingreference.org, and to this day you’ll see the money earned for each driver and team that took part in NASCAR races up until 2016, which happens to be the year NASCAR “awarded” 36 teams its idea of a franchise called a NASCAR Charter. From that year on, prize money information has never been released.

NASCAR simply refuses to publish the per-race money earnings. This leaves both the media and all the fans who enjoy seeing how much race drivers earn in the dark if you follow NASCAR. Over at Indycar, it’s common knowledge that Alex Palou won over $3-million when he took the checkered flag this year at the Indy 500. Along with all the 33 starters in this year’s Indy 500, the money earned is common knowledge.

However, in NASCAR, the sanctioning body leaves the financial side of the sport to what I call an increasingly obscure situation, making for the most important part of the sport (winnings) just something to think about. For longtime followers of the sport like me, along with most of the industry insiders I got to know along the way during my 34 years at PRI, we’re all scratching our heads.

To me, not printing the total winnings (including TV share) raises fundamental questions about accountability, fairness, and the future of team ownership and “charter” effectiveness.

Why NASCAR’s Charter System Changed Everything

In 2016, when NASCAR introduced the charter system, things started out okay. NASCAR told us the charter system would stabilize team investments and guarantee race entries. Thirty-six charters were awarded to teams, free of charge, with the promise of long-term value; most importantly, revenue sharing and guaranteed starting spots in every Cup race.

Yes, everything sounded good.

But here’s the catch, and it’s something I’ve been preaching about since day one: NASCAR owns the charters, not the teams. NASCAR made sure it retained ownership; thus, teams don’t really own them in the traditional sense of, say, an NFL or MLB franchise. The charter ownership terms are 100% dictated by NASCAR, and as the recent litigation involving 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports proves, their charters have been revoked by NASCAR, proving my point of “who owns what.”

As I explained last week, this charter isn’t a franchise like the NFL or even Formula 1. It’s a licensing system, and that distinction matters. When teams believed they had equity, they invested accordingly – building facilities, hiring talent, and securing sponsors. Now, with charters being pulled and potentially resold by NASCAR, the illusion of ownership is crumbling.

Why Hide the Winnings?

So why did NASCAR stop publishing earnings? In my opinion, this answer lies in a combination of business policy, legal matters, and media priorities.

First, the revenue structure has changed. Teams now rely more on sponsorships, as I stressed two years ago with a Chris Economaki statement that NASCAR was turning into a charity case. Chris emphasized 20 years ago that sponsorships were more important than race winnings. Until these charters were announced, Economaki was correct in his prophecy.

Today, manufacturer support and charter-based payouts have improved the race winnings formulas for the better. Granted, prize money still exists, but it’s distributed through a formula that includes historical performance, market metrics, TV sharing, and other factors not tied directly to race results. And, in a way, it’s always been that way, as regular NASCAR competitors that competed in every race back in the 1950s always received more race winnings than teams that ran less than the full schedule of races. It was the fair thing to do.

Further, the charter system’s confusion and complexity make it difficult to present a clean, race-by-race earnings report. Some payouts are guaranteed; others are performance-based, and still others are tied to long-term agreements. It’s no longer a simple matter of “finish in this place and earn this much.”

Third, NASCAR has embraced a media strategy focused on personalities and drama, not financials. The pre- and post-race shows, of which there are many, continue to push rivalries, interviews, and social media happenings more than the important business side of the sport, my specialty. The days of Fox Sports, the CW, or TNT/USA showing NASCAR earnings alongside finishing order are long gone. I’ll admit my interest is more boring than the social media drama going on all the time, but it is the real “bread and butter” of running a successful team.

The Cost of Winnings Secrecy

This lack of winning money transparency comes at a cost. Fans lose insight into the economics of the sport. Journalists lose a key tool for analysis. And teams lose leverage in negotiations, including sponsorships, too.

Consider this: in IndyCar, the top 20 drivers in points receive payouts from a multi million dollar incentive fund, separate from race purses. The Indy 500 alone paid over $20 million in 2025, with winner Alex Palou earning the aforementioned $3.83 million. These figures are public, and they help fans understand the stakes and rewards. The last-place car was awarded $155,000, but it was not one of the top 20 regular weekly teams. If you were a top 20 team, you earned at least $600,000.

In Formula 1, teams operate under the Concorde Agreement, which guarantees revenue sharing and protects franchise value. New teams must pay a $200 million anti-dilution fee to be shared with current teams and yet another transparent mechanism that reinforces the sport’s legitimacy. I explained this $200 million in the article I wrote about Andretti being blackballed from forming a new Formula 1 team. Formula 1 teams do not receive any prize money on a race-by-race basis. They are paid based on their performance in the Constructors’ Championship at the end of the year.

NASCAR, by contrast, has moved in the opposite direction. The monies won are now a blank line in the box score. To me, that’s a problem, especially for a major sport trying to attract new owners, sponsors, and fans.

I’m happy that Dodge Ram is returning to the Craftsman Trucks in 2026, but what about the Cup Series? We haven’t had a new manufacturer in decades, although Dodge may return in 2027. 

Is NASCAR going to sell charters?

The current legal battle between NASCAR and two of its former charter-holding teams – 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports – highlights the dangers of this muddiness. Both teams refused to sign NASCAR’s new charter extension, arguing that the system is unfair and anti-competitive. NASCAR responded by revoking their charters and now, most unfortunately, threatening to resell them. If NASCAR sells these charters, it could be a massive mistake in my opinion. By selling what was awarded for free in 2016, it could change the whole idea of what a NASCAR charter is because all 36 were awarded, not sold.

If NASCAR sells those charters, it will be monetizing assets it originally gave away for free. Worse, it will be doing so without acknowledging the millions those teams have invested under the assumption of long-term equity and the value of a charter that NASCAR owns.

As someone who’s covered this sport for decades, I believe this would be a critical NASCAR mistake. It would erode trust, discourage investment, and expose the sport to further legal challenges.

A Call for Transparency

It’s time for NASCAR to reconsider its approach. Fans deserve to know what teams earn. Teams deserve clarity on what they own. And the sport deserves a financial model that reflects its stature and that a “NASCAR charter” isn’t really any type of “ownership.”

Publishing post-race earnings again would be a simple yet dominant step. It would reconnect fans with the business side of racing, restore a sense of fairness, and reinforce the value of performance. It would also help journalists like me tell the full story, on the business side of the equation.

In a sport built on speed, risk, and reward, hiding the money winnings hurts the story line. NASCAR has a chance to fix that. I’m hoping they will.

Let’s hope NASCAR does make an about face and doesn’t make a critical mistake of selling 23XI and Front Row charters. And let’s hope the litigation stops and all parties come to an agreement, because like it or not, NASCAR does deserve a positive conclusion in this messy mess. And yes, so does 23XI and Front Row, now non-charter teams.

Yes, it’s that messy.

(Greg Zyla is a syndicated auto columnist who welcomes reader input on collector cars, auto nostalgia and motorsports at extramile_2000@yahoo.com or at Greg Zyla, Roosevelt Street, Sayre, Pa. 18840.)