Earnhardt & Gordon NASCAR’s Highest-Earning Drivers
Winning is not always the most important factor to making money. Top drivers generate between 8% and 31% of their earnings from the track. The rest comes from salary, licensing and sponsorships.
This explains why Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the highest earner at $35 million (or $830 for each left turn) despite winning only one race, the LifeLock 400. Earnhardt's endorsements and licensing royalties made him $23 million, as merchandise emblazoned with his new, No. 88 race car was NASCAR's top seller. His salary and race winnings accounted for another $12 million.
Earnhardt received a 30% bump in earnings last year, his first as a member of Hendrick Motorsports. This while the sport has seen declines in race attendance, TV ratings and new spending from corporate sponsors
Jeff Gordon, NASCAR's all-time leading money winner, was the second highest-earning driver, at $30 million, including $16 million from licensing and endorsement income from the likes of PepsiCo (nyse: PEP – news – people ), DuPont (nyse: DD – news – people ) and Electronic Arts (nasdaq: ERTS – news – people ). Both Earnhardt and Gordon have made fortunes while turning away millions in endorsement offers, instead choosing to partner only with select sponsors.
Says John Bickford, Gordon's business manager, "Both drivers have carefully cultivated their [respective] brand for years."
Accomplished drivers are insulated from the economic downturn facing the sport, at least in the short term, because of the structure of their contracts. Deals are multiyear and typically contain salary guarantees and establish minimums for endorsement and licensing income, regardless of how the logoed goods sell. Racing purses continue to grow as well, since they're fueled in large part by revenue from TV deals, which were negotiated in 2005 during the sport's boom. Forbes.com