Alright, so you wanna know how much them NASCAR pit crew fellas make, huh? Well, lemme tell ya, it ain’t no small potatoes, but it ain’t a king’s ransom neither. It’s kinda like farmin’, some years good, some years not so good, ya know?
I heard tell these fellas, the ones changin’ tires and fillin’ up gas faster than a jackrabbit, they get somethin’ like $3,000 a race. Yep, three thousand dollars just for one race! That’s a whole lotta money for a few hours of work, ain’t it? But hold your horses, it ain’t that simple.
- First off, that’s just an estimate, ya hear? Some might make a bit more, some a bit less.
- And then there’s the crew chief, the fella tellin’ everyone what to do. He’s the big boss of the pit, and he gets paid more, maybe $10,000 a race, or so they say. That’s a good chunk of change, right?
Now, them fellas, they don’t just work one race and then go sit on their behinds. They do this racin’ thing pretty much all year round. So, if you add it all up, a pit crew member, he might make anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 a year. That’s a purdy good livin’, wouldn’t you say? The average is somethin’ like $87,000, but like I said, it all depends.
Why does it depend? Well, it’s like this. If you’re a newbie, just startin’ out, you ain’t gonna make as much as the fella who’s been doin’ it for years. And if your team is winnin’ all the time, you bet your bottom dollar you’re gonna get a bigger piece of the pie. It’s like haulin’ hay, the more you haul, the more you get paid, simple as that.
And don’t forget them sponsors. Them big companies, they slap their names all over the cars and the uniforms, and they give the teams money. That money helps pay the pit crew, too. So, if your team got a real good sponsor, that means more money for everyone. It’s like havin’ a good harvest, plenty to go around.
They say the teams spend a whole bunch of money, too. Somethin’ like $83,000 on average, I reckon. That’s for all sorts of things, tools, equipment, travelin’, all that stuff. It ain’t cheap runnin’ a race team, that’s for sure.
Now, how does all this money stuff work? Well, at the end of each race, there’s a pot of money, prize money they call it. And that money gets divvied up between the teams. The driver, he gets a big ol’ chunk, maybe half of it. And then the rest gets split up somehow, part goes to the team owner, part goes to the crew, that kinda thing. It’s like a farmer sharin’ the crops with the hired hands after the harvest.
So, yeah, a pit crew fella can make a good livin’, but it ain’t easy money. They gotta be fast, they gotta be good, and they gotta be part of a winnin’ team. And they gotta be willin’ to work hard, just like us folks out here in the country. It ain’t all sunshine and roses, that’s for sure. You gotta work for your supper, no matter who you are or what you do. Without a good pit crew, even the best driver ain’t gonna win nothin’, it’s a team effort, you see? Like a bunch of folks comin’ together to bring in the harvest.
And that’s the long and short of it, as far as I can tell. It ain’t rocket science, but it ain’t exactly plantin’ corn neither. It’s a whole different world, that racin’ world, but money’s money, no matter where you are. And them pit crew fellas, they earn their keep, that’s for sure.
Tags: [NASCAR, pit crew, salary, earnings, race, money, sports, auto racing, team, crew chief]
