NBC kicks off its Nascar Cup season insurance this Sunday with a race from Chicagoland Speedway on NBC Sports Network. It comes on the heels of Fox Sports posting a 2% rating boom compared to 2018 for its first-half race schedule. The gain became a welcome change for the race series in which rankings are off almost 50% during the last decade.
Nascar has suffered from the retirement in the latest years of many of its biggest names, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, and Danica Patrick. The lost superstar electricity has dented viewership but has given team proprietors a risk to reset the sport’s income shape.
The $10 million motive force revenue days are just about done (Jimmie Johnson is the final remaining one, in step with more than one source). Salaries for new drivers are typically six figures, with a few drivers incomes extra than $four million in base salary.
The 10 top-incomes drivers made $116 million combined the remaining 12 months from salaries, endorsements, and their percentage of race winnings and licensing revenue. Overall is off 36% from a decade ago (forty-six % adjusted for inflation). In addition to decrease salaries, the downturn in licensing income and endorsements for the new crop of drivers has been steep.
Johnson is Nascar’s highest-paid driving force for the second time in three years. He earned $17.5 million in 2018 via Forbes’ be counted from his Hendrick Motorsports earnings and his cut of winnings and licensing. His profits additionally consist of personal endorsements with the likes of Chevrolet, Gatorade, and Seiko.
Johnson was Nascar’s pinnacle earner in 2018, but it becomes the worst season of his career, as he finished 14th common and failed to win a race for the primary time in his profession. Johnson has now not been inside the winner’s circle because of June 2017.
It was the end of an era for Johnson and Nascar when Lowe’s left the sport on the stop of the season. The domestic development chain signed on as number one sponsor of the No. 48 car in 2001 before Johnson had won a race. He proceeded to win 83 races and a report-tying seven Cup championships with Lowe’s. The season additionally marked the cease of the 17-year partnership among Johnson and his group chief Chad Knaus.
Digital monetary services organization Ally Financial inked a deal final fall to be the number one sponsor for all 38 races at the Nascar schedule for the No. Forty-eight cars. The agreement covers the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Johnson is also signed with Hendrick thru 2020.
Johnson’s $17.Five million tally closing year is 1/2 of what Earnhardt earned a decade earlier as the best-paid Nascar driving force. Below are the pinnacle-incomes drivers in 2018.
1. Jimmie Johnson
Total Earnings: $17.Five million
Salary/winnings: $14 million
Endorsements/licensing: $3.Five million
Johnson has a stake in and his call on a Chevy dealership in San Diego. It’s a result of Hendrick Motorsport proprietor Rick Hendrick, who also owns one of the biggest car dealership corporations within the U.S.
2. Kyle Busch
Total Earnings: $15.8 million
Salary/winnings: $13.8 million
Endorsements/licensing: $2 million
Busch received eight Cup races ultimate 12 months and led the standings midway via the 2019 season. The 2015 Cup champion gained his 2 hundredths race this 12 months blended across Nascar’s top three-race series.
3. Denny Hamlin
Total Earnings: $14.2 million
Salary/winnings: $12.7 million
Endorsements/licensing: $1.Five million
After failing to attain Victory Lane in 2018, Hamlin commenced this year with a bang, shooting his 2nd career Daytona 500 (his first Daytona changed into 2016). FedEx has been part of Joe Gibbs Racing considering that 2005 and is the lone number one sponsor for Hamlin’s car. Hamlin has private endorsement offers with huge logo names Coca-Cola and Nike’s Jordan Brand.
