NASCAR is one of the biggest stock car racing companies. It operates some of the most popular racing events, including the NASCAR Cup Series. Some of the greatest drivers have competed and are still competing in the tournament. Millions of people tune in on TV on a weekly basis to watch them.
Being one of the best racing companies, NASCAR pays its drivers handsome compensation. The drivers can earn money in many ways. Because of their popularity, the racers get endorsements, sponsors, and not to mention the winning prizes.
All the top 10 richest NASCAR drivers in 2023 have a net worth of over fifty million, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is leading the chart with hundreds of millions of dollars.
Here Are The Top 10 Richest NASCAR Drivers in 2023
| Racers | Net Worth (USD) |
| Dale Earnhardt jr. | 300 million |
| Jeff Gordon | 230 million |
| Jimmie Johnson | 180 million |
| Tony Stewart | 100 million |
| Kevin Harvick | 90 million |
| Kyle Busch | 80 million |
| Denny Hamlin | 80 million |
| Mark Martin | 75 million |
| Danica Patrick | 70 million |
| Richard Petty | 70 million |
1. Dale Earnhardt jr.
| Full name | Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr |
| Date of birth | October 10, 1974 |
| Place of birth | Kannapolis, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Height | 5 ft 10.5 in |
| Weight | 178.5 lb |
| First race | Coca-Cola 600 (Charlotte) 1999 |
| Last race | Ford EcoBoost 400 (Homestead) 2017 |
| First win | DirecTV 500 (Texas) 2000 |
| Last win | Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 (Phoenix) 2015 |
Career Highlights
- 2 times NASCAR Busch Series Champion: 1998, 1999
- 2-time Daytona 500 winner (2004, 2014)
- 2-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion (1998, 1999)
- 15-time Most Popular Driver Award winner (2003-2017)
You must be familiar with the name Dale Earnhardt Jr. He is one of NASCAR’s most popular drivers. He has won the most popular driver award fifteen times! And if that is not impressive enough, he won it fifteen times in a row! No wonder he tops the chart of the richest drivers.
Dale’s father, the legendary driver Dale Earnhardt Sr, is considered one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. Dale Jr. has had a very successful career himself. He won 26 Cup Series races and two Xfinity Series championships.
Dale Jr. was born in North Carolina, and being the son of Dale Sr., he has been involved in racing throughout his life. His racing career started when he was seventeen. Though it was a little late, with the assistance of his father, he quickly mastered the skills.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. competed in the NASCAR Cup Series for nineteen years and started more than six hundred races. He was in the top 10s 260 times and finished in third position twice in his career.
Dale Jr. had many sponsors and endorsements thanks to his massive popularity. Besides, he is involved in several businesses that add more to his net worth. He co-owns JR Motorsports, a team that competes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. It makes sense that he is the richest NASCAR driver, with a net worth of 300 million.
Career Stats for NASCAR Cup Series
| Races started | Wins | Top 5s | Top 10s | Poles | Best finish |
| 631 | 26 | 149 | 260 | 15 | 3rd (2003, 2004) |
2. Jeff Gordon
| Full name | Jeffery Michael Gordon |
| Date of birth | August 4, 1971 |
| Place of birth | Vallejo, California, U.S. |
| Height | 5 ft 8 in |
| Weight | 150 lb |
| First race | Hooters 500 (Atlanta)- 1992 |
| Last race | Goody’s Fast Relief 500 (Martinsville)- 2016 |
| First win | Coca-Cola 600 (Charlotte)- 1994 |
| Last win | Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 (Martinsville) – 2016 |
Career Highlights
- 4-time NASCAR Cup Series champion (1995, 1997, 1998, 2001)
- 3-time Daytona 500 winner (1997, 1999, 2005)
- Winner of the Brickyard 400 a record 5 times (1994, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2014)
- Inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2019
Next in line, we have Jeff Gordon, with a net worth of 230 million USD. You know he has to be on the list, as he had one of the most successful careers in NASCAR. He won the NASCAR Cup Series four times. He won the Daytona 500 three times too.
Gordon was born in California. He got interested in racing when he was only four. He raced for the first time when he was only five years old. His first professional race was in Atlanta in 1992. He had to wait three years for his first win, which came in 1994.
Gordon competed in the NASCAR Cup Series for twenty-five years! He started more than eight hundred races and won ninety-three of them. He was in the top 10s 477 times. A good portion of his money comes from the prize winnings.
After his retirement, he became an analyst and is getting respectable compensation for his expertise. With $230 million, he stands second among the top 10 richest NASCAR drivers in 2023.
Career Stats for NASCAR Cup Series
| Races started | Wins | Top 5s | Top 10s | Poles | Best finish |
| 805 | 93 | 325 | 477 | 81 | 1st (1995, 1997, 1998, 2001) |
3. Jimmie Johnson
| Full name | Jimmie Kenneth Johnson |
| Date of birth | September 17, 1975 |
| Place of birth | El Cajon, California |
| First race | UAW-GM Quality 500 (Charlotte)- 2001 |
| Last race | EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Austin)- 2023 |
| First win | NAPA Auto Parts 500 (Fontana)- 2002 |
| Last win | AAA 400 Drive for Autism (Dover)- 2017 |
Career Highlights
- 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2016)
- Winner of the Daytona 500 twice (2006, 2013)
- Inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2021
With $180 million, Jimmie Johnson takes the third spot in our 10 richest NASCAR drivers in the 2023 list. Most of his money comes from racing. He won many prizes throughout his career that includes seven NASCAR Cup Series.
Johnson comes from California. He was born in 1975 and started motorbike racing in 1980. You can see that he was into racing from an early age. He won many awards and prizes before starting racing in NASCAR.
Johnson started full-time racing in NASCAR in 2002. He won his first race in the same year. He was a born winner. He started 686 races and finished 374 times in the top 10. And how many times did he win? A total of 83 times.
Johnson earned more than $160 million as prize money! That’s insane, isn’t it? He retired as one of the most successful and richest drivers of all time.
Career Stats for NASCAR Cup Series
| Races started | Wins | Top 5s | Top 10s | Poles | Best finish |
| 686 | 83 | 232 | 374 | 36 | 1st (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) |
4. Tony Stewart
| Full name | Anthony Wayne Stewart |
| Date of birth | May 20, 1971 |
| Place of birth | Rushville, Indiana |
| Height | 5 ft 9 in |
| Weight | 180 lb |
| First race | Daytona 500 (Daytona)- 1999 |
| Last race | Ford EcoBoost 400 (Homestead)- 2016 |
| First win | Exide NASCAR Select Batteries 400 (Richmond)- 1999 |
| Last win | Toyota/Save Mart 350 (Sonoma)- 2016 |
Career Highlights
- 3-time NASCAR Cup Series champion (2002, 2005, 2011)
- Winner of the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway twice (2005, 2007)
- Winner of the NASCAR All-Star Race three times (2009, 2010, 2013)
- Inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2020
The three times NASCAR Cup Series winner, Tony Stewart, stands in the fourth position among the 10 wealthiest NASCAR drivers. In addition, he won many more races and prizes in his eighteen years long career.
Stewart was born in Indiana. And when did he start to race on the track? In 1979. He got his first competitive go-kart in Westport that year. The following year he won his first championship. His trainers speculated that the boy was going to become one of the best drivers. Standing in 2023, you have to admit that they were right.
Stewart won the NASCAR all-star race three times and Brickyard 400 twice. These are a few of his achievements only. He made over $122 million from prize money. No wonder he is so rich. And he has his own NASCAR racing team, now named Stewart-Haas Racing.
Career Stats for NASCAR Cup Series
| Races started | Wins | Top 5s | Top 10s | Poles | Best finish |
| 618 | 49 | 187 | 308 | 15 | 1st (2002, 2005, 2011) |
5. Kevin Harvick
| Full name | Kevin Michael Harvick |
| Date of birth | December 8, 1975 |
| Place of birth | Bakersfield, California, U.S. |
| Height | 5 ft 10 in |
| Weight | 175 lb |
| First race | Dura Lube 400 (Rockingham)- 2001 |
| Last race | EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Austin)- 2021 |
| First win | Carquest Auto Parts 250 (Gateway)- 2000 |
| Last win | Rinnai 250 (Atlanta)- 2018 |
Career Highlights
- 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion
- Winner of the Daytona 500 in 2007
- Winner of the NASCAR All-Star Race in 2007 and 2018
Kevin Harvick, often called “the closer,” is our next rich driver. He has won plenty of money by racing. He made more than $125 million from NASCAR Cup Series alone. He is one of the most popularly known racers of the twenty-first century.
Harvick comes from California, where he was born and grew up. He made his NASCAR Cup Series debut in 2001. He came close to winning the championship a few times but did not make it until 2014.
In his 22-year-long career, he started 792 races in the NASCAR Cup series and 349 races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He finished 433 times in the top 10 in the Cup Series. Harvick was known for his aggressive driving style. He has a reputation for being a tough competitor and for never giving up.
Career Stats for NASCAR Cup Series
| Races started | Wins | Top 5s | Top 10s | Poles | Best finish |
| 792 | 60 | 226 | 433 | 31 | 1st (2014) |
6. Kyle Busch
| Full name | Kyle Thomas Busch |
| Date of birth | May 2, 1985 |
| Place of birth | Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in |
| Weight | 185 lb |
| First race | UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 (Las Vegas)- 2004 |
| Last race | EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Austin)- 2023 |
| First win | Sony HD 500 (California)- 2005 |
| Last win | Pala Casino 400 (Fontana)- 2023 |
Career Highlights
- 2-time NASCAR Cup Series champion: 2015, 2019
- Youngest driver to win a race in the Cup Series (20 years old)
Kyle Busch may seem a little young to be on the list. But the two-time NASCAR Cup Series winner is not new in racing. He has been racing for more than two decades.
Busch is from Las Vegas, where he was born in 1985. His driving lesson started when he was six years old. At the age of seventeen, Busch was competing in the NASCAR Cups Series. He became the youngest driver to win the competition in 2015.
Busch has sixty-one wins to his name from 646 races he started. He finished in the top 10 for 359 times and 211 times in the top 5s. Apart from the Cup Series, Busch has won many more prizes and competitions, which helped him become a multi-millionaire.
Busch currently has a net worth of eighty million USD, which makes him one of the 10 richest NASCAR drivers in 2023. He is still racing and maybe will climb up the list; who knows?
Career Stats for NASCAR Cup Series
| Races started | Wins | Top 5s | Top 10s | Poles | Best finish |
| 646 | 61 | 211 | 359 | 32 | 1st (2015) |
7. Denny Hamlin
| Full name | James Dennis Alan Hamlin |
| Date of birth | November 18, 1980 |
| Place of birth | Tampa, Florida, U.S. |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in |
| Weight | 154 lb |
| First race | Banquet 400 (Kansas)- 2005 |
| Last race | EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Austin)- 2023 |
| First win | Pocono 500 (Pocono)- 2006 |
| Last win | Coca-Cola 600 (Charlotte)- 2022 |
Career Highlights
- 3-time Daytona 500 winner (2016, 2019, 2020)
You should not think that only NASCAR Cup Series winners make money, and the others do not. Take Denny Hamlin, for example. He is yet to win the competition, but he is on the list with a net worth of 80 million USD.
Hamlin comes from Tampa, Florida, where he was born in 1980. He started his first race in NASCAR in 2025 in Kansas. The following year, he would have his first win. And afterward, he went on to have 48 wins in his Cup Series career.
Hamlin had many endorsements and sponsors. He was very popular among the fans, which helped him get big signatures. He won the Daytona 500 three times between 2016 and 2020. Hamlin never won the Cup Series but came too close in 2010, when he finished second.
Career Stats for NASCAR Cup Series
| Races started | Wins | Top 5s | Top 10s | Poles | Best finish |
| 614 | 48 | 178 | 323 | 36 | 2nd (2010, 2014) |
8. Mark Martin
| Full name | Mark Anthony Martin |
| Date of birth | January 9, 1959 |
| Place of birth | Batesville, Arkansas, U.S. |
| First race | Northwestern Bank 400 (North Wilkesboro)- 1981 |
| Last race | Ford EcoBoost 400 (Homestead)- 2013 |
| First win | AC Delco 500 (Rockingham)- 1989 |
| Last win | Sylvania 300 (New Hampshire)- 2009 |
Career Highlights
- Finished second in the championship standings five times (1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2009)
- Won championships in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (1998, 1999)
- Inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2017
Racers are only making money in recent years. It is a common notion that you may have also heard. That is not true, though. Mark Martin would not have made the list at the age of 64 if that was true.
Mark Martin is a NASCAR Hall of Famer. He is an idol and inspiration for thousands of young drivers who want to become just like him. Martin was born in 1959 in Arkansas. He joined NASCAR in 1981 and came close to winning the competition several times but never won it.
Martin finished in the second position not once but four times. And he became a fan favorite. He was active in the Cup Series for over three decades.
Martin started 882 races and finished in the top 453 times. That is more than 50%. Surely he earned a lot of money. Besides, he had a huge endorsement signing with brands like Viagra, Ford, and Goody’s Headache Powder. All these made him very wealthy.
Career Stats for NASCAR Cup Series
| Races started | Wins | Top 5s | Top 10s | Poles | Best finish |
| 882 | 40 | 271 | 453 | 56 | 2nd (1990, 1994, 1998, 2002) |
9. Danica Patrick
| Full name | Danica Sue Patrick |
| Date of birth | March 25, 1982 |
| Place of birth | Beloit, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Height | 5 ft 1.5 in |
| Weight | 120 lb |
| First race | Daytona 500 (Daytona)- 2012 |
| Last race | Daytona 500 (Daytona)- 2018 |
Career Highlights
- Became the first woman to win a major open-wheel race in the United States
- Competed in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2012 to 2018
Well, you might have thought that racing is for men only. Women do not have any luck. If so, Danica Patrick is here to prove you wrong. She made millions of dollars from racing. She is also a successful businesswoman.
Patrick has changed the landscape of women racing. She became the first woman to win an Indy Series. She is also the first woman to finish in the top 5 seven times in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Being the first woman in multiple aspects of racing, you can guess that she was very popular in all of America. Naturally, she received sponsors and endorsements worth multi-million dollars from Coca-Cola, GoDaddy, and Chevrolet.
In addition to her racing career, Danica Patrick has pursued various business ventures. She has launched her own wine brand, Somnium. Moreover, she has worked as a television host and commentator for various networks, including NBC and Fox Sports too.
Patrick is very hard-working and intelligent. Her hard work, passion, and dedication have earned her a place among the 10 richest NASCAR drivers in 2023.
Career Stats for NASCAR Cup Series
| Races started | Wins | Top 5s | Top 10s | Poles | Best finish |
| 191 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 24th (2015) |
10. Richard Petty
| Full name | Richard Lee Petty |
| Date of birth | July 2, 1937 |
| Place of birth | Randolph County, North Carolina, U.S. |
| First race | Jim Mideon 500 (Toronto)- 1958 |
| Last race | Hooters 500 (Atlanta)- 1992 |
| First win | untitled race (Southern States)- 1960 |
| Last win | Firecracker 400 (Daytona)- 1984 |
Career Highlights
- 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion (1964, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1979)
- Most career wins in the Cup Series with 200 victories
- 7-time winner of the Daytona 500 (1964, 1966, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1979, 1981)
- Inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1997
You must have heard the name- Richard Petty. If not, then you are not a NASCAR fan. He is called “The King” of NASCAR. He dominated the Cup Series during the 60s and 70s. He holds the record for most wins, with 200 wins to his name.
Petty had racing in his blood. His father, Lee Petty, won the first-ever Daytona 500 in 1959. Lee Petty was also a three-time NASCAR Cup Series winner. Being a second-generation racer, Richard took forward the legacy. He won the Cup Series a record seven times.
Richard Petty remained an active driver for thirty-five years and started 1184 races. And how many times did he finish in the top 10? More than seven hundred times. Forget the top 10; he was in the top 5 for 555 times. It is even difficult to imagine breaking his records.
Richard Petty was also involved in various businesses. He became successful both on and off the track. The legendary driver’s net worth is 70 million USD, which makes him the final entrant on the list.
Career Stats for NASCAR Cup Series
| Races started | Wins | Top 5s | Top 10s | Poles | Best finish |
| 1184 | 200 | 555 | 712 | 123 | 1st (1964, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1979) |
Conclusion
NASCAR is a highly popular racing company. The reason behind its popularity is the racers who entertain the audience. So, the drivers are well-paid, and because of their popularity, they are always in demand for sponsors and endorsements.
You can see from the top 10 richest NASCAR drivers in 2023 that drivers can lead a highly luxurious life. It makes sense that more and more parents want their children to make a career in racing.
