How much does a NASCAR cost? NASCAR was founded in 1948 and has a long racing history in the U.S. Previously, NASCAR drivers competed in unmodified road cars which were bought at dealerships. But the rules and regulations have changed since then.
Teams now buy NASCAR cars from race car manufacturers. And, of course, the racing technology and car parts do not come cheap. The price of a standard NASCAR race car has increased over the years.
For a stock car at the Cup Series level, which includes the engine, tires, wheels, brakes, bumpers, chassis, and other additional parts, the cost can vary from $200,000 and $600,000. The engines are the most expensive part of the car.
Other expenses arise from equipment, repair, maintenance, and other costs. The teams are most likely to spend an average of $15 million per race car over the course of a season. Let’s break down the cost of a NASCAR car.
How much does a NASCAR cost?
A NASCAR Stock car at Cup series level can cost from $200,000 to $600,000 for a complete car. This includes aspects like tires, chassis, engines, wheels, and brakes.
How much does a NASCAR Engine cost?
The engine is the most expensive part of a race car. It requires a large portion of the money due to its performance demand. There are many parts needed to build a technologically complex engine. Hence, the cost is high. NASCAR cars use V8 engines which produce nearly 1000 horsepower.
However, depending on the track, they are limited to 510-670 horsepower. The engine costs $100,000. And as the teams are allowed to build 13 engines per season, the budget for engines alone goes beyond $1 million.
How much does a NASCAR cost to build?
To build a NASCAR vehicle, you need to consider the cost of several parts like tires, chassis, engines, wheels, and brakes. Their prices vary depending on the manufacturer and brand. Therefore, it would cost around $400,000 to build one of the cars.
How much do the NASCAR tires cost?
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company does not come cheap at all. NASCAR has had a sponsorship with them for almost seven decades. A lot of processes go into building a tire. The tires are custom-built to enhance racing. Each tire is tailored to the individual track and the weather conditions.
Hence, it can cost between $350 to $500 per tire. Teams use 5 to 15 sets of tires over a race weekend and 36 races in a season. So the teams spend approximately $720,000 on tires per season.
How much does NASCAR Chassis cost?
In the past, NASCAR teams spent between $70,000 to $150,000 for a chassis. They would custom-build the chassis of their race cars. It depended on what an individual team could afford. But since the 2022 season, and the introduction of the Next Gen car, NASCAR made it mandatory for all the teams to use the same chassis.
It is made by a Michigan-based company called Technique Inc. Each chassis costs 28,000 dollars. Even teams with larger budgets must comply with this rule and would not have a competitive advantage over other teams.
How much do the NASCAR maintenance and replacement cost?
NASCAR teams usually allocate 10 percent of the total cost of the race car for maintenance and replacement parts alone. As the cars zoom around at high speed, there is a certain level of danger.
The teams aim to keep their cars in top condition and have an amount set aside in case of an accident or a malfunction. The major components are expensive. For example, the cooling system of the car engine costs $7,000. And the brake system can cost approximately $30,000.
What is the cost of NASCAR fuel and wrapping a car?
The fuel cost is around $40,000 to $50,000 per season. An average NASCAR race covers between 150 to 500 laps. The cars burn half a gallon of fuel per lap. As a result, teams tend to have large amounts of fuel for all the races. Now that’s settled, let’s move on to the wrapping costs.
It is noticed that NASCAR race cars have bright-colored bodies and sponsorship logos displayed. The teams go to get lengths to feature their logos, and they add their partners and sponsors to their livery. Teams customize their race cars. Wrapping a car can cost them about $2,500 to $3,500.
Car crash or accident cost
Any damage to major components like Suspension parts, driveshafts, cooling systems, bearings, axles, gears of the car may cost tens of thousands of dollars approximately $30,000 to $50,000.
When the vehicle is at full speed of 200 mph any slight contact with other race cars or sidelines may lead to a severe impact on the body of the vehicle, and sometimes disrupt the internals system. NASCAR teams sign insurances for such occurrences because a vehicle alone would cost them $400,000.
Will the next gen NASCAR reduce costs?
The Next Gen Car will dramatically cut costs for NASCAR race teams. In fact, this was one of the primary areas of focus the sanctioning body had in mind when designing it, along with improved safety and competition features.
How will the new car save teams money? Basically, by centralizing the manufacture of many essential components, as with the aforementioned chassis. Whereas in the past teams had to make their own or buy from another team, all teams will be buying the same components from single suppliers, a practice which is bound to tighten competition as well as cut costs.
- For example, BBS of America, Inc will make all wheels just as Goodyear makes all NASCAR Cup tires.
- Five Star Race Car Bodies will make most of the different body components,
- While springs will be supplied by Hyperco
- Radiators and coolers by PWR North America,
- Bumpers by Kirkey Racing Fabrication.
While many have criticized this move saying that the new NASCAR racing machine is basically a spec car, this system of building race cars appears to be the future.
Another factor that will counteract rising costs for race teams is that they will now be limited to having 7 cars in rotation at any given time. In the past it was not uncommon for the larger teams to have twice that number.
But that is not to say that the savings will be immediately apparent as the 2022 season gets underway. In fact, the 2022 season is bound to be one of the most expensive for NASCAR teams in recent memory.
The reason is twofold in that as the old Gen 6 cars and (because Gen 7 really is so vastly different) most parts will have to be cast aside, the new cars will inevitably undergo a shakedown phase as they take to the track in actual race conditions.
Only in this way will they come to be fully understood, and it is almost guaranteed that adjustments and tweaks will have to be made as the intricacies of the gen 7 car reveal themselves.
So in that sense it seems as though much of the expense of switching to the next gen car will be “front-loaded.” That is, there will be a lot of upfront cost in the first season or two, but once the gen 7 NASCAR machine is dialed in, the savings for race teams compared to the cost or racing the old gen 6 cars will really start to show…until NASCAR goes to a hybrid engine sometime in the not-to-distant-future, anyways.
Why NASCAR cars cost so much?
NASCAR cars may bear resemblance to street-legal counterparts, but their anatomical parts are nowhere near the same. One look under the hood and you realize you are dealing with an entirely different case. However, engine size and power are just two components of many that contribute to high prices. NASCAR cars are made using top-notch materials for the purpose of safety and performance upgrades.
These cars are also not built on assembly lines. Instead, a team of builders, specialists, and engineers build them to perform at maximum capacity. They can only use high-quality material that NASCAR approves to bring about the best safety and performance capability.
With new technological developments always in the making, NASCAR cars will continue to evolve. One side-effect of that evolution means the cost of building a NASCAR car will inevitably rise. However, with those higher costs comes a more entertaining product on the track with even greater safety enhancements.
Total cost of a NASCAR cup car
When you add up the total cost, you will spend a minimum of around $180,000. However, the cheapest ride is not the best option for long-term success. Take maintenance costs on a week-to-week basis that may run up to the original amount you paid for the car, and it could cost as much as $7,000,000 to run all 39 races on the schedule for a single season once you factor in fuel and other components.
The higher amount may not be feasible if you are forking out 100% of the funds. A NASCAR Cup car built with top-notch equipment costs roughly $344,000. The costs include the engine, chassis, and 12 sets of tires for a single race at the highest prices. Multiply $344,000 by 39 and the cost is more than $13 million to run a car for an entire season, which includes only the maintenance of the car.
Save money on costs
The cost of building a NASCAR car is hefty, but fortunately, you can save money in your endeavors by attaining sponsors to help you cover the costs. However, it can be difficult to find sponsors who are willing to fork out hundreds of thousands of dollars to new and unproven teams.
Remember, sponsors are displaying their name and logo on your hood, doors, and rear bumper. The better your car performs, the more they will get a return on their investment because potential customers are seeing your car as opposed to those riding at the back of the pack.
One alternative to attaining sponsorship is to find a group of investors who have always wanted to own a piece of a NASCAR team. They can help with the costs of building the best possible car if they believe that such an endeavor will give them a sound return on their investment.
Benefits of sponsors
The best way to convince sponsors to put their name, logo, and colors on your hood is to prove you have a product worth sponsoring.This is the main reason you shouldn’t sacrifice quality for lower costs.The better the car’s proposed quality, the more likely you are to attract sponsors and investors.
These sponsors won’t be your local mom and pop shops. Many NASCAR sponsors are on the Fortune 500 list of the largest US companies.Even if you have a sponsor that is not on such a prestigious list, they could help you cover most if not all the costs of building and maintaining your car.
The better your car finishes, the more sponsors you will attract. If you attract enough sponsors for the car, you can then invest in a second ride or even a backup car. So, although a NASCAR car costs several hundred thousand dollars to build, investing closer to the higher threshold could reign in lucrative sponsors.
Starting and parking is not feasible
Before NASCAR introduced the chartered system, you often saw cars competing without sponsors. Many of these cars were start and park rides who ran only a few laps per race before they parked their ride and collected bottom-tier prize money.
This was a controversial practice that fans frowned upon because they knew the unsponsored car was purposely relinquishing its qualifying position and had no intention of competing. They primarily did this to provide maintenance and upgrades to these underfunded rides.
Since 2016, starting and parking has been phased out. It may still occur at lower levels of NASCAR, but with the chartered system in place, it is very rare. Your best bet is to find sponsors or investors if you don’t have enough money to set aside for building and maintaining the car.
Who pays for NASCAR cars?
NASCAR cars are precision engineered in the search for ultimate power. But this increases the cost of the cars. So how do owners who own multiple teams pay for the cars? A look at a NASCAR car reveals the answer to the question. Stickers carrying the names of top corporations are all over the car. They are on the sides, the hood, the doors and the bumper. 130 of the Fortune 500 companies sponsor NASCAR cars.
The companies pay anything between $20 million to $25 million to sponsor a NASCAR team. A long term contract will cost more. A company paying for a primary sponsorship earns the right to advertise on the hood of the car. Their logo is displayed on the front of the driver’s and the pit crew’s uniforms. They also get to display advertisements on the sides of the rigs that transport the car across the country.
Secondary and associate sponsorship can be bought for $2 million to $6 million. Hendrick Motorsport employs more than 500 people to maintain NASCAR cars. It is estimated that 65 to 70 per cent cost of all the infrastructure is sponsorship paid. The rest of the expenses are covered by other endorsements and race winnings.
These costs are transferred to the customers of these companies and the fans! Obviously, corporations and NASCAR are in the business to make money. Therefore, it is you and I who are lifting the tab not only for NASCAR but for all the racing cars in the world.
FAQs
How much does it cost to buy a NASCAR?
For a complete NASCAR race car, which includes the engine, tires, chassis, wheels, brakes, bumpers, and additional parts, costs can range between $200,000 and $600,000.
Who pays for NASCAR tires?
Interestingly, racing teams don’t buy their tires. They lease them from Goodyear (the official tire supplier of NASCAR) on race day. Each team is allowed to lease 16 sets of four tires [source: Mackinnon]. That means that each NASCAR Sprint Cup team invests around $20,000 on tires alone for each race.
How much is for 1 tire on a NASCAR?
Each tire can cost anywhere from $350-$500, with race teams using up to 16 sets of tires in a typical weekend. If one was to do the math, NASCAR teams would spend around $20,000 per weekend just on tires.
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