NASCAR Purses and Payouts For Charlotte Race: How Much Money Will Drivers Make?

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How much money will NASCAR drivers make at Charlotte? Here’s the race purse, potential payouts and what’s at stake for the field.

Sunday’s Bank of America 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway offers a NASCAR Cup Series purse of $11,233,037, according to NASCAR insider Bob Pockrass. The winning team stands to collect roughly $579,600 of that total.

That figure matches the Loudon and Las Vegas purses, so the Chase brings no prize-money bump, and what drivers actually pocket stays locked inside private contracts.

The race is Round 6 of 10 in the Chase and the first fall Cup race on the 1.5-mile oval since 2017, before the Roval ran from 2018 through 2025. Thirty-nine cars are entered, three of them non-chartered, including Corey Heim’s No. 67 for 23XI Racing, Gray Gaulding’s No. 66 for Garage 66 and NY Racing’s No. 44, according to NASCAR.com.

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How the Bank of America 400 Purse Breaks Down

NASCAR does not pay a pure finishing-position purse. Court documents unsealed in October 2025 show a fixed owner pool of a little over $182 million for the season, with a base of about $141,000 per charter for each event, according to Forbes‘ Greg Engle. That base stays with the team. A separate performance pool of more than $91 million is paid on a two-year rolling average of owner points.

The finishing-position slice follows a published payout curve. The winner receives 5.160% of the purse, second place 4.067%, 10th place 3.341%, 20th place 2.479% and 36th place 1.218%, according to Racing News‘ transcription of filings.

Applied to Charlotte’s reported $11,233,037, the curve pays about $579,600 for first, $456,800 for second, $375,300 for 10th, $278,500 for 20th and $136,800 for 36th. Contingency awards and year-end points fund contributions sit inside the posted purse. Open cars do not receive the charter base.

The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Blue Cross NC 300 reported a purse of $1,661,806 and the Craftsman Truck Series race $789,700.

The May Coca-Cola 600 weekend posted a Cup purse of $13,855,363, a larger figure tied to the longer, bigger event rather than a playoff designation, according to Pockrass.

Driver share is a private contract, not a NASCAR rule. Driver cuts ranged from about 5% to 50%, former Cup driver Landon Cassill said in 2014, with drivers at the high end often drawing no salary. A commonly used working estimate for a mid-tier deal is 40%, which turns a $579,600 winning check into roughly $232,000. A star on a salary-heavy deal at 10% to 20% takes about $58,000 to $116,000 for a win.

Highest-Paid NASCAR Drivers Are Hamlin, Larson

NASCAR does not disclose salaries or season winnings. Denny Hamlin testified Dec. 2, 2025, that Joe Gibbs Racing pays him about $14 million a year to drive, according to Forbes. That excludes his 40% stake in 23XI Racing, and works out to about $389,000 for each start across 36 races.

Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports is next at an estimated $12 million, followed by Chase Elliott at $10 million, Joey Logano of Team Penske at $9.5 million, Brad Keselowski of RFK Racing at $9 million and Ryan Blaney at $7.5 million, according to SalarySport.

Season purse winnings are not published. A contender who wins three to five races and stays in the top 10 can generate roughly $8 million to $12 million in team race checks over 36 starts, before the year-end fund. The driver keeps whatever his contract specifies.

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