NASCAR team owner’s prophecy comes true as $37m difference between Lewis Hamilton and Kyle Busch shows F1 ahead in big deal

Yes, NASCAR is on an upward curve again, both in terms of the popularity of the sport and the quality of racing. But at the same time, it lags far behind other sports, sports like Formula 1, which could be considered its direct competitor, in aspects such as driver pay. Just compare today’s highest-paid NASCAR driver Kyle Busch to F1’s Lewis Hamilton and you’ll see the millions of miles between the two.

In a recent list compiled by Sportico of the 100 highest paid athletes in the world, Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes AMG F1 ranked 19th. The seven-time F1 champion wins a huge $54 million altogether, with $42 million straight from his time behind the wheel.

On the other side, Kyle Busch couldn’t even decipher the list. The NASCAR driver didn’t even make the Top 100 as expected earnings for 2022 stand at $16.9 million.

By simple calculations, Busch or, in this context, NASCAR, falls $37.1 million running out of F1.

Who’s to blame for the lack of “big deals” for NASCAR superstars like Kyle Busch?

In a recent episode of Clear door bumper podcast, Tommy Baldwin, the former majority owner of Tommy Baldwin Racing, described why the days of NASCAR drivers with massive contracts are no longer a reality.

“The days of big deals are over” said Baldwin.

He revealed how to be in a lot of “large meetings” with big guns like Rick Hendrick, Roger Penske, Jack Roush and Richard Childress made him realize how big the sport has become “quite fast” to where he is.

“These guys were just racing each other. These owners, all they’ve done for the past 15 years is compete to win races. Baldwin explained. “They built all these big places, hired all these people for all this money.”

“And they practically ran out of the garage with the high cost.”

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