Sprint Cup champion’s prize cut in half

Edwards won't be laughing when he sees how small his check is if he wins

Four drivers will compete for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship Sunday at Homestead with the intensity for the trophy unchanged but for a champion's bonus less than half of last season's, sources tell ESPN. The overall point fund last year was $21.765 million, with the champion slated to earn about $4.7 million (Kyle Busch's take was less because he missed 11 races), and this year it will be less than half that amount. Second place last year paid $2.1 million, third $1.58 million, with seventh place on back earning less than a million.

As part of the new charter system and in an effort to make their revenue stream more predictable, NASCAR and the team owners' Race Team Alliance agreed to pay the champion less but spread the point fund more equitably throughout the top 25 drivers and teams. Drivers typically get paid a percentage of purse and point-fund money in addition to a base salary. The overall point fund increased in 2016, NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Brett Dewar said, but he wouldn't elaborate, citing confidentiality clauses in the charters, about the distribution. The teams obviously had to share with the drivers what they were getting from NASCAR as they reworked agreements based on the new system unveiled in February. "I think it is a million-and-a-half to win a Cup," six-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said.

"The last time I stood on stage, it was 7-and-a-half [million]. It's a huge change." Sources familiar with the charter agreements indicated the 2016 bonus to the championship team is much closer to $2 million than $1.5 million. The last time Johnson was on stage, in 2013, the champion bonus was $5.2 million, with Johnson and his team having total earnings of $14.66 million. Johnson and his team did get a $7.225 million champion bonus in 2008. NASCAR stopped publishing how much money a driver earns for the team each week in the purse and does not plan to publicize the bonus structure as it has in the past, citing the new charter system structure.

The 36 charter teams get dollars from two pools of money based on participation — a fixed amount each team gets, and then an amount based on the team's finishes the previous three years, most heavily weighted to the previous season, which means that the champion will earn more for his team over the next three years than if he had finished lower in the standings. Charter and non-charter teams vie for the same amount of purse money for each race through the field (obviously less than in past years because much of the money is part of the fixed amount) and year-end bonus money that goes to the top 25 owners and drivers. More at ESPN