NASCAR’s biggest race comes with a big payday for the winner.
The 2026 Daytona 500 has a purse of $31,045,575, which is up from $30,331,250. NASCAR only announces the total, not what the winner or other drivers get, but the formula was revealed during the recently settled antitrust lawsuit the series was facing.
One of the documents that went public detailed the “Purse Payout Curve For Cup Series Points Events,” which covers the 36 regular season races, but not the exhibition Clash or All-Star Race.
According to the table, the race winner receives 5.160%, which will equate to $1,601,951.67 this year. Second place doesn’t do half-bad, either, with a 4.067% at $1,262,623.54, and the payout goes down for each position to 40th, which gets $275,063.80. Any additonal bonuses are not mentioned.
There is one driver in the race who won’t get anything. Jimmie Johnson has entered as a 41st car using the Open Exemption Provisional, which is a guaranteed starting spot for notable drivers who don’t regularly race in the series.
Johnson also won’t earn any points, but the race winner gets a bonus compared to last year. Instead of 40, they will get 55, which is meant to give drivers more of an incentive to race for wins under the revived Chase championship format.
