The NASCAR Cup Series bandwagon, after two short-track races, will now head to its first road course race of the season at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. So far, the Cup Series races have delivered some epic finishes, as well as surprises, and something similar is expected from this weekend’s race.

With a bump in TV ratings and the overall success of the races so far, NASCAR has decided to break the bank in terms of weekend purses across all three series. According to the report by Bob Pockrass, the total purse prize is estimated to be around $10 million.

Purses for the Circuit of the Americas race revealed

Interestingly, when you compare the current purse with last year’s event, there is a significant increase for both the Cup Series race and the Xfinity race. The trend stays similar for the Truck event, with marginal changes in the purse value for the 2024 feature. Sharing the details about the total prize purse for the COTA weekend, Pockrass shared the information via a post on X.

“Purses for COTA weekend. Includes all payouts to all positions, contingency awards, year-end points fund. For Cup, incl charter team payouts for participating, 3-year charter performance history, etc. Cup: $9,740,789, Xfinity: $1,778,948, Trucks: $794,098.”

Last year’s race saw NASCAR shell out $9,294,829 for Cup purse, and the figure for the 2024 season Cup race itself is edging close to the $10 million mark. Meanwhile, the Xfinity race purse last time around was $1,695,270, and there is a marginal bump for this season’s event.

However, there has been a trend in bumping up the purse prize for this year’s NASCAR events when compared to last year. Let us take a look at how the previous races fared and what the payouts were for those events.

NASCAR is continuing on its trend with an increase in purse value for all the Cup Series races in 2024

It all started at “The Great American Race” season’s opener at Daytona International Speedway. The purse for the Cup Series race was reported at a staggering $28,035,991, which was a million more when compared to the purse of the 2023 season race. Moving on, we have the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which provided one of the iconic moments in the sport. The purse for the Cup race in Atlanta was set at $9,137,793, again a bump from the previous editions of the 2023 race.

The Las Vegas Cup race saw NASCAR shell out $9,386,054, and just like the Atlanta and Daytona races, the purse prize was notched up from the previous year. The return of concrete on Bristol also continued on the same trend, as the purse for the Cup event was set at $8,182,531. TV ratings and the impact of the Netflix series seem to have allowed NASCAR to share a good chunk of revenue with its team, and moving forward, this trend might continue for future races.

What are your thoughts about the increased payouts and purse prizes for the NASCAR races in 2024? Do let us know in the comments.

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