DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
How much are the top World of Outlaws teams spending each year? Full breakdown, plus startup, income | Daily 12-7-2022
With all this talk of money lately, what exactly does it cost to run a competitive World of Outlaws Sprint Car team? We are going to dive into the numbers. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, December 7th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
I've got a bunch of good stuff for you today, but before we dive in, I want to spotlight MSP Mounts, who is the sponsor of today's episode. MSP Mounts, owned by sprint car racer Dan McCarron, make action camera mounts that are perfect for whatever you race. That could be on dirt or on asphalt. These heavy duty mounts can fit any roll bar or tubing from 3/4" thick up to two inches, and because these are built by racers, for racers, you know they are tough enough to handle whatever you can put them through. If you're a watcher of FloRacing, you have probably seen video footage captured using these mounts. Flo likes them because they are super fast and easy to take on and off cars. You don't need any tools, just the quick clamp that comes built in. It's a good time to get into the content creation game, and if you're going to do that, you'll need some of these mounts for that all important onboard footage. The other thing I was thinking about with these mounts, is for driver improvement. Mount one of these with a GoPro inside the car, and you could use it for film study. Check your racing lines, see how the track evolves, and what your competition is doing. So as we get into indoor season, or you are making your 2023 plans, grab a few of these for your racing program. You can order online at mspmounts.com, and I've got a discount code for you. Use code "DIRTRACKR" at checkout for 10% off. That's D I R T R A C K R at checkout over at mspmounts.com for 10% off. Also, if you're headed to PRI this week, find Dan, as he's got some mounts with him. You can actually see one for yourself, and tell him I sent you.
Also, really quick, DIRTRACKR sprint car decals are back in stop at shop.dirtrackr.com. $5, includes postage and sales tax in the US.
Alright, today's show topic is one I've had on my idea list almost since I started doing the DIRTRACKR podcasts and shows. And with all of the talk lately about money and payouts, it seemed like a good time to finally dive in and make it happen. Part of the reason I haven't done it is because I knew it would be fairly research heavy, and I was correct. What I'm about to present is multiple hours of work, pulling in numbers from several sources, including a few publicly available pieces of content online, and some help from some industry friends. So what I'm about to share is a bit of a breakdown on what it costs to run a World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series team for a season. A couple of notes before we start. First, these numbers are based on a team that will run towards the front of races, and not what the season could potentially be done on at the cheaper end. This is a top five running team at the end of the season. Second, a few of these numbers are estimates, but they should be fairly close. Obviously nobody is going to let me look at their actual books, but thanks to those of you out there who took a look at these and provided me some guidance. Third, these numbers are not hyper specific, meaning I'm not counting every single tI bolt in the bins at the shop. I've made a few generalizations, which will get into as we go. Also, if you are someone in the industry, and see a massive hole or screwup somewhere, feel free to let me know, as I know these numbers won't be absolutely perfect.
So let's get into it. The overall number I started with was from Justin Marks. If you aren't aware, Marks is the current owner of Trackhouse Racing in NASCAR, but he did previously own the Larson-Marks sprint car team with driver Shane Stewart. They competed for several seasons with the Outlaws, and had some big wins along the way. In a 2016 episode of the Dinner with Racers podcast with Sean Heckman and Ryan Eversley, Marks revealed that his sprint car team operated each season on half a million dollars. That was all expenses, including shop rent and three employees. He pointed out that Shane Stewart did not earn a salary, he just got 50% of earnings. Also, he said that he was almost able to cash flow the team off of prize money, without any additional sponsorship support. That's an interesting thing to take away from that conversation. So using that $500,000 number, and accounting for inflation, I figured that same team would cost about $620,000 a season right now. And we can then break that number down using other resources available around the interwebs, plus, like I said, some extra help. A few examples of the pieces I used for help included a 2021 Speed Sport article about the costs of racing sprint cars at Bristol, and a 2019 Sprint Car and Midget piece about tow money paying the bills that featured some numbers and comments from Mikey Kuemper. Kuemper was the long time crew chief for Kraig Kinser, who recently departed the team. The operating expenses for the year that I took into account are shop rental, diesel and truck expenses, crew guy salaries, the tire bill, hotels, plus engine and car maintenance and miscellaneous. I did not include things like pit passes, because Outlaw teams get those free for their platinum membership.
Starting with the shop rental. I used rates based on some commercial space around the Charlotte area from LoopNet, as we are home to a bunch of race teams, including Kasey Kahne Racing. I figured $40,000 for the year would get you a fairly reasonably sized space when your guys aren't on the road. That's about $3300 a month.
Next, when they are on the road, obviously the truck and trailer are a big expense. You've got to pay for diesel fuel, truck maintenance, and insurance and other fees. The common number you hear about mileage for an Outlaw season is 40,000, which based on a truck getting 6 miles per gallon, and the national average diesel price right now being $5, puts you at $35,000. Depending on various factors though, I bumped that to $50,000 for the budget. That would cover variance in those prices, plus any extra trips needed through the season. As for the truck itself, based on a few cost calculators online, I've got expenses and fees at about 50 cents a mile, so add in another $20 grand in truck costs. So right now for a shop and a truck, we are at $110,000.
Next is crew guy salaries. For three full time guys, a tire guy, a car chief, and a crew chief, I've budgeted $200,000. A tire guy for $600 to $800 a week, a car chief for $1000 a week, and a crew chief making just a little north of $100,000 for the year. I've heard some crew chiefs are getting as much as $150,000 or more at the top end, but we will keep this a little more reasonable. The salaries take us to $310,000 total.
As for travel, I'm going to put these guys in hotel rooms as often as possible, and decent rooms at that. In my other life, I actually handled travel for one of my NASCAR teams, so I'm super familiar with hotel rooms and rates for a season of racing. I've got that at $100,000 for the season. It could be done cheaper for sure, but I don't want my guys in sketchy roadside places. New total is $410,000.
When you talk about racing, obviously tires are always a problem. The past few years have seen prices rise substantially, and shortages affect the racing. So tires are going to be a huge part of the budget. Right rears from Hoosier are north of $300 each right now, and thanks to some feedback, I put the tire budget at $80,000 for the season. If we run 75 nights, that puts us just above a grand a night in tires. That brings our total cost up to $490,000.
So of our original $620,000, we are left with $130,000 for engine and car stuff, plus any miscellaneous costs. And I knocked that down to $100k, figuring $30,000 for engine rebuilds through the year. One source told me he gets his engines rebuilt every 20ish nights, and even if we knocked it down to say 15 nights, $30 grand should cover that. So that leaves us $1300 a night in car and miscellaneous, which will include the cost of methanol. And just like that, $620,000 is used up. I think it's important to note that these are operating expenses, and not startup costs. If you want to start a team, you can figure all of this, but you'd need to purchase that truck and trailer, call that half a million, and then an assortment of cars, engines and parts. In that Speed Sport piece about Bristol, Philip Dietz said a car without engine is $30,000, but with the rising costs of things, and if you want the best stuff, you could be closer to $50k. And a good 410 engine will probably run you $70,000 or more right now. So all in to start a team at a high level, you are looking at $1.1 to $1.2 million, plus that $620,000 in operating costs.
On the flip side, let's look at some income numbers since we are on this subject. Four of the top five in the Outlaw standings cleared north of $500,000 between prize money, the point fund, and tow and bonus cash. If we take Sheldon Haudenschild and the Stenhouse Jr. Marshall team as an example, they were fifth in points and had nine wins, which earned them $504,525. About $370,000 of that was race winnings, and another $65,000 was the points payout. That leaves $68,250 in tow and bonus money. If Sheldon got half of the winnings and points payout, that leaves the team with just shy $290,000. That means a shortfall of about $330,000 to make up for in sponsorships and support. When it comes to that extra support, teams are selling sponsorships for straight cash, but they also get product deals which will lower their costs for things like parts and chemicals. There is also contingency money availble throughout each event, that is probably near $1000 a night, spread through the field.
As we continue to witness the showdown over race payouts and sharing streaming revenue, these numbers should give you some context about what is being fought over. $620,000 is definitely on the higher end, and if you were willing to make some cuts, you could probably get that down to much less, say maybe $175,000. For example if you had a shop at your house, and maybe one crew guy versus three. You slept in the truck more often and had fewer hotel rooms. There are lots of places that could be cut down. So chew on these numbers and let me know what you think in the comments below.
I'd also like to do a similar breakdown for the late model side, so if you are aware of resources or have information you want to share, feel free to reach out to me via email or DMs.
It's Wednesday, so that mean's a new podcast episode update. LoudPedal has Lacey Doyle of RMS Racing, Passing Points has Jason Martin, Quicktime has Chase Randall, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters from Dirt on Dirt and the Dirt Nerds. I also had some people reach out about Hoogie's Garage, so I added it to the podcasts page as well. He's got recent interviews with Donny Schatz, Doug Johnson, and Guy Forbrook. To check out the full list of shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
The only things on the streaming schedule today are DIRTVision Now and FloRacing 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, have a good Wednesday! Make sure to hit that like button, and subscribe! Thanks for tuning in, we'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily.