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Conservatively, a fuel team must
spend close to $20 grand minimum just to compete one weekend,
so simple math suggests a "shoestring" budget
of a half-million dollars to run the full season. It’s
a little more “affordable” on the IHRA side
of things, thanks to a much shorter schedule and
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fewer
qualifying and elimination rounds, but clearly, relying
on race winnings is not a wise way to plan on paying the
bills. Sure, prize money matters when it comes to offsetting
immediate costs, but judging from this list that’s
about all a team owner can hope for. The top-tier teams
that are easily spending two or three or four times what
their lesser-financed rivals can afford clearly can’t
be meeting their expenses by cashing in winners’ checks.
Obviously, just as with any motorsport, sponsorship
is the backbone of professional drag racing. Fortunately
there are still corporations out there that see value in
what NHRA and IHRA offers, but many teams have few, if any,
significant backers and it’s those teams that truly
defy logic. Even at the bracket racing level I’ve
often marveled at the tremendous cost invested to compete
for minimal rewards. But for the most part those are self-described
hobby racers—even if they are very serious about what
they do—but at the so-called “professional”
levels of drag racing I would expect more mercenary analysis
of raceday purses.
| DRIVER |
CLASS |
2005 WINNINGS |
1. Tony Schumacher
|
TF |
$1,141,500 |
| 2. Gary Scelzi |
AAFC |
$830,500 |
| 3. Clay Millican |
TF |
$646,500 |
| 4. Del Worsham |
AAFC |
$593,500 |
| 5. Larry Dixon |
TF |
$545,500 |
| 6. Greg Anderson |
PRO |
$532,500 |
| 7. Doug Kalitta |
TF |
$531,500 |
| 8. Ron Capps |
AAFC |
$529,000 |
| 9. John Force |
AAFC |
$516,500 |
| 10. Eric Medlen |
AAFC |
$475,500 |
| 11. Robert Hight |
AAFC |
$446,000 |
12. David Grubnic
|
TF |
$401,500 |
| 13. Brandon Bernstein |
TF |
$395,500 |
| 14. Morgan Lucas |
TF |
$380,000 |
| 15. Tony Pedregon |
AAFC |
$377,500 |
| 16. Tommy Johnson Jr |
AAFC |
$370,000 |
| 17. Doug Herbert |
TF |
$366,000 |
| 18. Scott Kalitta |
TF |
$345,000 |
| 19. Whit Bazemore |
AAFC |
$342,500 |
| 20. Cruz Pedregon |
AAFC |
$333,500 |
| 21. Cory McClenathan |
TF |
$332,500 |
| 22. Kurt Johnson |
PRO |
$278,500 |
| 23. Dave Connolly |
PRO |
$242,000 |
| 24. Rod Fuller |
TF |
$238,500 |
| 25. Jason Line |
PRO |
$238,333 |
Source: www.draglist.com
Race safe,
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