There are Teams down South getting 15-20 million, but that is not the norm anymore.
You can buy a top 10 Nextel Roller for around $20,000, rent a top notch motor for $20,000, and get a crew for $10,000 per race and go racing. That is a real cost which anyone can look up on the internet.
Right now on www.racingjunk.con there are Super Speedway cars for sale, complete with fresh motors, for sale for $45,000 and the cars are available from Roush, Evernham and DEI. You can buy a top notch Truck complete for $35,000 and Busch cars sell complete for around the same price.
I know several Teams that run for $25.000 per race and run in the top ten and have been doing it for years.
Two years ago Musgrave won the Truck Series Championship and the Team owner told me they averaged $18,000 per race in costs. For anyone in the market place I know where there is 6 Craftsman Trucks complete and have raced and finished at places like Atlanta, Texas, Martinsville and Charlotte, that you can own for $60,000.00.... thats for all 6 trucks... Call Harmon Racing down in Mooresville NC.

I will agree there are some Teams getting the 15-20 million, but they are very few and far between, and you can always spot them as they are the guys that fly around in there private Helicopters, and live on Lake Norman with there $300,000 boats and toys. They all drive $100,000 cars and they spend money faster then you can say IRS, but again, they are very few and far between. After talking with several teams first hand I can tell you the norm per race cost is $25,000 and that will buy you a spot in the top 10 in most cases, except for the Super Speedways.

As far as the Driver getting 40% of the winnings that is true in the case of the Earnharts, Gordons, Montoya's and so on, but the average split for a driver is down around 20%, and in some cases the driver gets nothing from the winnings but is paid threw his own sponsorship program.

not to be pissing mid but the musgrave example where is that team now? did they not shut down the truck program right after he won the championship?name one team in cup,busch, truck,irl ,even cart that runs in the top ten CONSISTENTLY with the per race budget described above. hell it cost our west guys 1500 to 2000 to go from stoon to calgary on expense alone. i am not wanting to argue but a cant see the math,but i am willing to say i could be wrong with some hard evidence. i could see your cost matrix at the arca,hooters or lower nascar levels being very true. i think the one thing we can agree on is that the one entity that makes the most bling is NASCAR.

Yes the Team ( Ultra Motorsports) did fold after winning the championship but keep in mind they were the oldest team in the series who started the Truck Series from its very first race ever and then competed in every single race until they won the Championship. Just for your information, when the team closed they had a 2 day auction, which I attended, and if you want to talk the cost of racing this was just an example of how cheap you can go racing in thje South.
Brand New- never raced chassis's sold for as high as $2500.00 complete and as little as $1000.00 , thats two thousand five hundred. They sold 2 cup cars complete with motors for $12,000 and $14,000 and one of them had never even seen a race track. The Busch cars sold for $10,000 and motors went for $5000.00. The auction was packed with the who's who in racing, and even with the amount of people in the know the highest bid was just what you see.

I was talking with Jimmy Spencer at that auction and he told me you could do a start up deal for the Truck Series for as little as $300,000 which includes 2 Trucks, 3 motors, pit equipment and even the hauler just by doing the auction buys.
When I told him that is what it would cost to start up a CTS deal he looked at me as if I was nuts, and when I told him what we were racing for purse wise he said with a little grin- " the air up there must be a liitle thin... You guys need to get more CO2 for your brains !!!"
Spoken like a true professional and I agree.
 

Hey Midamerica. Your input is always insightful, but I would not consider Marlin and Nemechek as Gordon or Montoya, when it comes to salaries. They were getting 45%.

Take care

with your math that is still over 10000dollars to race per race with out any expense,crashes or failures planned for,but do racers get enough of the pie ? NO i agree 100% with you, but as long as nascar remains a private co. there will be no transparency and the teams will continue to get the shaft. it would be good to see cart payout with team owners running the series and how those %s work.