[I Flip For Carl]

Originally Posted by kcoruol

How much does a nascar stock car cost?

If you are asking how much it costs to run a team

Operational Costs, from largest cost down

1. In-house engine program: $3.5 million+
2. Team salaries (for a typical 90-100 person team): $2.5-3.5 million
3. Driver salary (varies, see below)
4. Travel: $1 million per team
5. Tires: $1 million per team ($20,000 per race weekend plus testing)
6. Cars: $1-3 million per team*

*From the ground up, including the engine, a race-ready Nextel Cup car costs about $125,000 to build:

Car - $70,000
Engine - $40,000
Labor - $15,000


Driver Salary
Ordinal out of range How much of the weekly prize money actually goes into the driver's pocket and how much goes into the owner's varies from team to team, depending on the driver's contract. Typically, a driver is guaranteed a base salary, plus a percentage of what the team wins at the track, the numbers varying wildly from driver to driver and team to team.
Current Cup rookies come in with base salary around $400,000, plus incentives for winning poles, races, or picking up points positions. The more successful they are, the more money they get...and when you win like today's rookies seem to do, raises are frequent and large.
But most drivers make much more than their team pay through a combination of sponsor appearance fees, sponsor incentive bonuses, straight endorsement fees, and merchandise sales.
According to Forbes, Jeff Gordon made $19.3 million in 2004. But according to NASCAR, he won only $8.3 on the track. Actually, he probably took home about 40% of those winnings. The remaining $11 million came from salary, appearance fees, bonus incentives from his sponsors, and endorsement fees.

[Lefty Noob]

Wow, excellent info! I had no idea these guys had base salaries to go along with their on-track winnings, but if they have contracts with different teams, I guess that would make sense. Probably just a case of ol' Lefty not putting 2 and 2 together.

[Racer Duck]

the basic cost to build a cup car is outta sight compared to the cars at your local track. the normal "stocker" costs about $10K per season. from there it goes up until you get to the Super Late Models, WOO & Winged Sprint Cars. my first season with the SLM costs to get to the track and race ran about $1K per race for 4 people, and I hardly went more than 200 miles and was "poor-boying" it! I can buy a complete "roller" (car w/o engine & trans & paint) like my SLM for about $20K-$30K, depending on the builder. add about the same for the cost of a "built" engine and another 5 or 6 thousand for tranny, paint and decals. a top of the line Super Late Model will run about 1/2 what a cup car costs to build, that's just to get the car parked in your driveway.

on the other hand, a cup car's cost is almost miniscule compared to the cost of an F1 or Indy car which hit the $1M mark regularly. but their costs are in the exotic materials like carbon fiber and titaniam as well as their extensive electronics. that's probably why there's a lot fewer F1 & Indy teams than Cup teams. and you probably noticed their pit crew is twice the size of the cup teams which is more $$$.

naturally, the teams want sponsors to carry the load. I don't know of any form of racing (except maybe foot races) where the purse pays the bills. Sponsors are essential. the TV folks are making a big deal about the $130K guarantee to start the Brickyard 400, but that barely pays the expenses associated with making the race .. it doesn't touch the cost of the operation "back at the shop".

as flip indicated, the cost of a car depends on whether you're talking about how much does it cost for materials and labor to put one together or whether you're talking about the "total" cost including R&D, race expenses, overhead, support personell and the driver.

while Gordon may have pulled in $19M last year, projections for Jr. go as high as $40M in 2008!

it's definitely not small business anymore.

[Bette]

How many times is a race car washed on race weekend????

[BringBackWilkesboro]

Not to mention the cost of staying with the times. All the new Technology like seven post rigs, trips to the wind tunnel and the engine/chassis dyno, plus the need to pay for something that goes wrong. And don't forget these dern computer programs.

[Bette]

Originally Posted by Bette

How many times is a race car washed on race weekend????

This is a legit question. If you dont know the answer, be glad to help you out!

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by Bette

This is a legit question. If you dont know the answer, be glad to help you out!

my recollection from when I was at the track is: it depends on the team and their other problems.

but assuming there's nothing amiss with the body and no serious mechanical problems (change engine, trans, etc.): every time the car goes into the garage, but at a minimum after every practice and after qualifying. the car is never "put away wet".

that said, understand that teams don't wash the race cars like you would your car. they don't use buckets of soap and water. they use "cleaners" specifically formulated to remove oil, track grime, and rubber.

is that what you were looking for?

[simple simon]

i have a hypothetical ....... not sure if it would ever happen, but watching the race today got me to thinking

let's say for some reason JG's pit stall is not able to be used (maybe Tony crashed into his stall or something) ..... can JG pit in Jimmy Johnson's stall ?

i know it would likely never happen, but if it did .... can you use someone else's pit stall

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by simple simon

i have a hypothetical ....... not sure if it would ever happen, but watching the race today got me to thinking

let's say for some reason JG's pit stall is not able to be used (maybe Tony crashed into his stall or something) ..... can JG pit in Jimmy Johnson's stall ?

i know it would likely never happen, but if it did .... can you use someone else's pit stall

yes, as long as the NASCAR officials are aware of the reason your stall isn't available and have informed you which stall to use while it's not available.

[simple simon]

Originally Posted by Racer Duck

yes, as long as the NASCAR officials are aware of the reason your stall isn't available and have informed you which stall to use while it's not available.

that's so cool ..... im glad you knew, i wasnt sure if anyone would

are you aware if it ever happened ?

[EmpireWF]

I understand it's every man for himself out there on the track but then what about the drivers who are under the same brand (Chevy, Ford, etc.). Do they just make a pact not to ram the other or something?

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by simple simon

that's so cool ..... im glad you knew, i wasnt sure if anyone would

are you aware if it ever happened ?

no, never seen your scenario, but remember last year when two cars had to share a single pit stall? they worked a plan with NASCAR that when a car dropped out of the race, one of them would move to the new stall. this is just the reverse.

Originally Posted by EmpireWF

I understand it's every man for himself out there on the track but then what about the drivers who are under the same brand (Chevy, Ford, etc.). Do they just make a pact not to ram the other or something?

fortunately the drivers rarely exhibit brand loyalty (except the occasional restrictor plate race) and any there might be is usually cast aside when a driver sees an opportunity to improve his/her position on track. with the current count of chevrolets, no other brand (or even two brands) can match their numbers. it would be monopoly in action should the chevy guys gang up against the others.

[Bette]

Originally Posted by Racer Duck

my recollection from when I was at the track is: it depends on the team and their other problems.

but assuming there's nothing amiss with the body and no serious mechanical problems (change engine, trans, etc.): every time the car goes into the garage, but at a minimum after every practice and after qualifying. the car is never "put away wet".

that said, understand that teams don't wash the race cars like you would your car. they don't use buckets of soap and water. they use "cleaners" specifically formulated to remove oil, track grime, and rubber.

is that what you were looking for?

My source says at least 4, depending on how much debris accumulates.
Too much debris affects the car's performance. (Do I sound like I know what I am talking about or what?)
Actually, I was just trying to stump you. Should have known you'd have an answer.

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by Bette

My source says at least 4, depending on how much debris accumulates.
Too much debris affects the car's performance. (Do I sound like I know what I am talking about or what?)
Actually, I was just trying to stump you. Should have known you'd have an answer.

ya sound like an expert to me .. now you can sit here and answer these folks questions while I take a break

BTW: I always have an answer .. even if I don't know the right one I have an answer...

but you did good 'cause I had to sit and think (old memory cells are sometimes cranky when you disturb them, so gotta go slow...) ... finally the light came on, a bit dim at first, but on.

trivia time: back in '72 when my brother got his first cup ride he told me that the teams put talcum powder on the cars .. said it was a "speed secret" - the powder filled in the small cracks and indentions making the car more aerodynamic. he said that's the reason there's always a big cloud of dust on the start of a race .. all the talcum powder blowing off! don't know if he was pulling my leg or not 'cause I never saw any teams do it, but that's what he told me.

[Bette]

Originally Posted by Racer Duck

trivia time: back in '72 when my brother got his first cup ride he told me that the teams put talcum powder on the cars .. said it was a "speed secret" - the powder filled in the small cracks and indentions making the car more aerodynamic. he said that's the reason there's always a big cloud of dust on the start of a race .. all the talcum powder blowing off! don't know if he was pulling my leg or not 'cause I never saw any teams do it, but that's what he told me.

Ha Ha Sounds like maybe he was pulling your leg but one never knows.

Cant answer any other questions because all I know is about the car wash stuff.