{"id":907731,"date":"2026-09-24T10:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/907731\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T10:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:26:14","slug":"nascar-kansas-race-purse-and-payouts-how-much-money-will-drivers-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/907731\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Kansas Race Purse and Payouts: How Much Money Will Drivers Make?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nascar-kansas-race-purse-payouts-money.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet, takes the checkered flag\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>How much money will NASCAR drivers make at Kansas? Here\u2019s what to know about the race purse, payouts and potential earnings.<\/p>\n<p>Denny Hamlin brings the largest projected paycheck in the NASCAR Cup Series field to Sunday\u2019s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, win or lose.<\/p>\n<p>Hamlin enters the fourth of 10 Chase <a href=\"https:\/\/roundtable.io\/sports\/nascar\/news\/nascar-at-kansas-2026-race-preview-notes-odds-and-broadcast-info\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">races one point behind Kyle Larson<\/a>, leaving Sunday to settle both the points lead and the weekend\u2019s biggest payday.<\/p>\n<p>NASCAR stopped publishing driver earnings in 2016, so all figures rely on court records and salary estimates. One number is mostly solid. Hamlin testified under oath in December 2025 that Joe Gibbs Racing pays him about $14 million a year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pitbynumbers.com\/articles\/nascar-salaries-drivers-crew-chiefs-pit-crew\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to a PitByNumbers report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Spread across 36 points races, that comes to roughly $389,000 per start. Joey Logano\u2019s estimated $9 million and Chase Elliott\u2019s $8 million, <a href=\"https:\/\/apostlesportsmedia.com\/2025\/01\/19\/highest-paid-nascar-driver-2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to Apostle Sports Media salary estimates<\/a>, work out to about $250,000 and $222,000. Estimates put Larson near $236,000 per race and Ryan Blaney near $194,000.<\/p>\n<p>Kansas offers a total weekend purse of $11,233,037, charter payments and contingencies included, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bobpockrass\/status\/2102787222948753781\" rel=\"nofollow\">according to NASCAR insider Bob Pockrass<\/a>. Court documents from the 23XI Racing antitrust case exposed the payout curve, which handed 2025 Phoenix winner Blaney\u2019s Team Penske roughly $640,000 of a $12.4 million total, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/gregengle\/2025\/10\/29\/nascar-charter-documents-reveal-how-much-teams-actually-get-paid-per-race\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to Forbes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Applied to Kansas, that curve pays the winning team about $579,000. This model gives each driver 40% of that share, or roughly $232,000 for a win and $150,000 for 10th. The $141,000 charter base payment stays with the team, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/stories\/nascar\/nascar-financials-revealed-profits-losses\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to Pockrass\u2019 breakdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 40% split remains an educated guess, however. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHonestly, every deal is different. There\u2019s drivers in the Cup Series that make anywhere from 5 percent to 50 percent of the prize money,\u201d former Cup driver Landon Cassill said in 2014, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegazette.com\/sports\/getting-paid-how-prize-money-is-divided-up-on-race-day\/article_c7490ee8-c1c0-50ee-a291-dd4f6e7c1fdf.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">as quoted by The Gazette<\/a>. Drivers at the top of that range, Cassill added, usually draw no salary.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Denny Hamlin Tops Projected Kansas Payday<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nascar-kansas-race-purse-payouts-money-denny-hamlin.jpg\" alt=\"Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Progressive Toyota, exits his car\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" class=\"size-large wp-image-6406606\"  \/>GettyDenny Hamlin stands to pocket up to $621,000 at Kansas on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>A second- through fifth-place run puts Hamlin near $559,000 to $572,000. A win lifts him to about $621,000. Even a last-place finish in the 36-car field, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nascar.com\/news-media\/2026\/09\/23\/qualifying-orders-for-2026-kansas-speedway-chase-races\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to a NASCAR.com staff report<\/a>, sends Hamlin home with around $444,000 for Sunday afternoon\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p>Larson ranks second at $406,000 to $468,000 for a top-five finish. He passes Hamlin only by winning while Hamlin falls to about 30th or worse.<\/p>\n<p>Logano, the Bristol winner, projects third at $400,000 to $429,000 for a finish between 10th and third. Elliott follows at $372,000 to $392,000 and needs a podium to clear $400,000.<\/p>\n<p>Blaney and Tyler Reddick split fifth. Blaney lands near $344,000 to $364,000 with a top-10 or top-five result. Reddick\u2019s $167,000 slice grows to about $337,000 with a top five and $399,000 with a win.<\/p>\n<p>A win by a lower-salaried driver such as Carson Hocevar pays roughly $310,000 to $350,000. In other words, Hamlin can make more cash by finishing last than Hocevar would by winning in Kansas. Endorsements and team win bonuses give drivers more money, but fall outside these estimates.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nascar\/food-city-300-leader-black-flag\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790245574_199_food-city-300-leader-black-flag.jpg\" width=\"242\" height=\"161\" class=\"size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Kyle Larson Leads Kansas Favorites<\/p>\n<p>Larson opened as the +400 favorite at Caesars Sportsbook, with Hamlin at +425 and Christopher Bell and Reddick each at +575, Fjeld reported. Blaney sits at +775, Ty Gibbs at +900 and Logano at +2500.<\/p>\n<p>Larson and Hamlin have dominated Kansas in the Next Gen era. Hamlin has seven top-five finishes there and Larson six, with Larson leading 577 laps. Bell owns four Next Gen poles there, and Reddick two wins, including this spring.<\/p>\n<p>The 1 1\/2-mile showdown starts at 3 p.m. EDT, noon PT, on USA Network, with Logano 16 points behind Larson and Bell 17 back.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nascar\/bubba-wallace-disrespect-hocevar-nascar-comments\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bubba-wallace-disrespect-hocevar-nascar-comments.jpg\" width=\"242\" height=\"161\" class=\"size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/jonathan-vankin-ejjyr\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jonathan Vankin<\/a> JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist who covers MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, boxing, golf, and Olympic sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Newspaper and Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering the Olympics, pro baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/jonathan-vankin-ejjyr\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Jonathan Vankin<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty How much money will NASCAR drivers make at Kansas? Here\u2019s what to know about the race purse,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-907731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}