How much money did Brandon Sheppard win this year altogether?

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

The talented drivers are the ones heading the winning efforts.

A talented driver in a car that's off does not win today.

[Crossbones]

A talented driver in a car that's off does not win today.

A talented driver isn't going to be in an off car for very long and won't need a $100,000 crew chief either.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

A talented driver isn't going to be in an off car for very long and won't need a $100,000 crew chief either.

Who's going to fix it? Madden and Bloomer seem to go ok on their own. There are guys out there who pay 6 figs and need to. That covers more than just making calls. Leading a crew and taking care of the business (stocking parts, handling product sponsor obligations, etc) is important and not a job for a $300/wk helper.

[Stefan2k4]

I agree with MasterSbilt_Racer here. This is big time dirt track racing we are talking about. If you want to win it costs money and little guys are never going to stand a chance against the teams who have the funding. Good people who know what they are doing don't come cheap. In fact, I'd say this has accounted for much of Bloomquist less than normal performance the past couple of years. I know he's been hurt this year and he's not quite fully recovered yet, but last year before he got injured, he probably should have won the lucas series championship, had he had a decent crew and crew chief. In Bloomquist case, I think, it's that he sometimes tries to bite off more than he can chew and do too much by himself. Remember the problems he had with his crew chief being in all sorts of trouble and controversy. Remember the mechanical and electrical issues he had with his car. Remember the times he showed up late and was driving the hauler himself. Clearly, he needed a good chief and a good team manager of some sort to manage all the other stuff, so that he could focus on doing what he does best, driving the car.

For a local saturday night weekend warrior, it might be a different story, but if you're going to follow the big show and race against the best of the best for the big money, you got to spend some money on good people. That's why I don't agree with all this rhetoric about dumbing down the cars to help the little guys compete. If the little guys can't afford to run with the big guys, they're never going to be competitive anyway. It doesn't matter what rules you change and what limits you impose. And modern motorsports is not a money making venture without big sponsorship involvement. That ship sailed decades ago. Instead of regulating the cars and dumbing down the sport, the focus needs to be on promotion, putting more fans in the stands, making the sport more exciting, and getting more exposure through things like more TV coverage, internet streaming, etc. Things like that will get more attention form sponsors and without sponsors there is simply no way to be profitable.

[JTB75]

I’m not sure if this has been talked about, but who gets the T shirt sales. I’ve heard of guys who have had bad seasons and the shirt sales made it possible to keep going

[Dlmfan123]

Slavic does most of rocket 1 t shirt stuff

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Bloomquist sold his merchandise rights to Arizona.

[golddirt]

Fans are like drivers, dwindling

[baker1b]

JTB75 I was getting ready to ask the same question. Pierce and Bloomquist I would think make more at the Tshirt trailer at big events then the winner does for winning the race I would say. It's a amount that would change the season for them I'm sure. I used these two because I think they probably do the the most. JD is probably pretty close to them as well. It's a very big business.

[Zonks32x]

JTB75 I was getting ready to ask the same question. Pierce and Bloomquist I would think make more at the Tshirt trailer at big events then the winner does for winning the race I would say. It's a amount that would change the season for them I'm sure. I used these two because I think they probably do the the most. JD is probably pretty close to them as well. It's a very big business.

Sometimes it's beneficial to do the math.

A driver would have to sell 1667 T-shirts @ $30 to generate $50,000 in revenue.

That's revenue, not profit, so subtract the cost of the shirts, gas to get the t-shirt trailer to the track, paying the person in the trailer, etc.

$40,000 would be 1333 T-shirts, and $30,000 would be 1000 shirts.

No driver is selling 1000 shirts in a weekend. Two-day event, t-shirt trailer open 6 hours each day. That's 83 shirts/hour. Want to open the trailer 10 hours/day, that's 50 shirts/hour, every hour.

I'm calling HORNSWOGGLE!!!