Just a couple of races into the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series and we’re already seeing a bunch of new fans flocking to the sport. Why? Well, for starters, the races at Daytona and Atlanta were nothing short of electrifying. Plus, the drop of “NASCAR: Full Speed” on Netflix has really amped things up. And guess what? All this buzz is making a nice bump in NASCAR’s prize money. Bob Pockrass just spilled the beans on the purse for the Las Vegas weekend, and let us tell you, there’s some good news for all three series.

NASCAR is stepping up its game with the prize money for the Las Vegas weekend

Bob Pockrass recently let us all know that the 2024 Daytona 500 got a total purse of $28,035,991. That’s a million more than in 2023, which was at $26,934,357. It marks the second year running that we’re getting the lowdown on the Daytona 500 purse. We were left in the dark for 2021 and ’22, but back in 2020, before the pandemic hit pause on the season, the purse was $23.6 million. Since 2015, when the purse was just $18 million, it’s been on a steady climb, with this year’s increase keeping up the trend.

And it’s not just Daytona; the Atlanta weekend’s prize money was also looking pretty sweet. This includes everything from payouts for all the spots, contributions to the season-ending point fund, and for the Cup series, extra dough for charter teams based on their three-year performance and just showing up: Cup series is raking in $9,137,793, Xfinity’s got $1,328,978, and the Truck series is at $705,481. Compare that to last year’s bounty in Atlanta: the Cup had $7,449,067, Xfinity was at $1,654,863, and Trucks brought in $671,050.

Last year, the Cup Series race out in Nevada dangled a prize pool of $8,960,174 in front of the drivers, with the Xfinity Series handing out $1,716,356, and the Craftsman Truck Series throwing in $703,062. This year, according to the scoop from the Fox reporter, the Cup’s prize money is up to $9,386,054, Xfinity’s getting a bump to $1,801,278, and the Truck Series is up to $736,214 for its drivers. Just like in Atlanta and Daytona, we’re seeing those purse values climb higher than last year.

However, the NASCAR world is clearly not happy with the Truck series’ prize money.

NASCAR fans are making it clear they’re not thrilled about the prize money the Truck Series is getting

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For the third year running, NASCAR’s been open about the weekend prizes, but fans can’t help noticing the huge gap between what the Cup and Truck races bring in. One fan joked, “Truck Series teams get to pick a prize out of the treasure box,” while another pointed out, “There’s no point of Truck series going west of the Mississippi River if purses are going to be that low for them.”

One particularly frustrated fan mentioned, “starting and parking in the trucks is seeming like a good proposition with a purse that embarrassing.” And someone else chimed in about the drivers, “WTF is NASCAR even doing with the Truck Series…and people wonder why we get the product out of them that we do…”

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Other fans didn’t hold back either: “Some weeks, the Truck teams might win a free night at the Borgata, but they have to sit through a 90-minute timeshare presentation to be eligible,” “The purse for the Trucks is abysmal, holy moly man..,” and “That’s pitiful.”

So, what’s your take on the parity gap across NASCAR’s three main series?