Did you know, Justin Bonsignore’s purse winnings for finishing third in the NASCAR Modified Tour season opening event at New Smyrna Speedway on Feb. 8 was $4,641.
In 2024 Doug Coby’s purse winnings for finishing third in the NASCAR Modified Tour season opening event at New Smyrna Speedway was $5,900.
Well wait you ask, how can that be? We’ve all heard since last October about the significant increase to purses on the NASCAR Modified Tour in 2025.
And yes, there was a significant purse increase for 2025 at New Smyrna, on paper. But, things can get a little interesting when you start to dig a little further.
It seems there’s some smoke, some mirrors and a fascinatingly well played shell game going on.
LISTEN: Flute With No Holes: Deciphering The Purse Increase Shell Game On The NASCAR Modified Tour
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Why exclude some of Justin’s winnings (that not everyone is eligible for)?
While including a portion of cobys winnings, that not everyone is eligible for
Zig13,
What is listed here for Justin Bonsignore’s earning is what any regularly running full-time team participating would have gotten for finishing in that position in the event. It didn’t include any additional money he collected for special awards or bonuses .
And the money listed here for Doug Coby last year is what any regularly running full-time team participating would have gotten for finishing in that position in the event. It didn’t include any additional money he collected for special awards or bonuses.
That’s not strictly true. At new Smyrna, every single team is full time at that point, aren’t they?
Last year’s Smyrna would have been based on ’23s owners points. So only 25 teams would have had a chance at that money. And that’s at most, too lazy to check who out of those actually showed up.
Just seems very picky and choosy to only include some of the money from a section, The entry blanks are pretty clear on what money is considered what and section it off as such. Big “if you ignore all the positives, youll see that there are only negatives left” vibes.
Zig13,
There was no “picky and choosy”. You’re trying too hard here dispute what’s real. The fact is the purse was lowered for the top quarter of the positions. Fifty percent of the “increase” was spread out over the two middle quarters of the field and the the other fifty percent of the increase was over the last quarter of the positions, which are typically not paid out at most events the series runs. The largest increase of any positon in the field was last place (32nd), which was paid out one time over 16 events in 2024.
The “purse” was not lowered.
The “purse” is very clearly listed and defined.
This year’s entry blank says “racing purse break down” and “total 116,000” and spots 1-32 listed
Last year’s said “racing purse break down” and listed 1-32. Which totaled 85k.
Those are the purses. Full stop. End of story.
You don’t get to decide to include the bonus plan in the purse just because you want to. That’s not your choice to make. They are different pools of money and are used for different reasons. That’s why it says “top 5 awards” with listed assumptions. Instead of “top 5 purse”
Yes, they don’t pay out the bonus plan per race anymore. Yes, some of that is probably where the point fund increase comes from. It’s probably not all of it. Maybe it’s a good change. Maybe it isn’t.
Other touring series don’t include things like tow money into their purses, because it isn’t purse money.
Purse money is what you get when you pull a car out of the weeds, show up, and race. You don’t have to meet a single requirement to get, other than finish in a particular spot.
Zig13,
You sound exactly like every PR person who has ever “explained” the “purse” to anyone questioning anything to do with it since the series started. It’s always been that way, thats why the format is ever changing. Make it always a moving target and nobody can land the dart. Awards, bonuses, contingencies, special awards, special contingencies. It’s like when you go to the car dealership and negotiate with the salesperson and you agree on a trade-in number and you agree on a price you’ll pay for the new car and then you’re sitting with the finance guy and looking at the paperwork and none of the numbers you talked about with the salesperson are what is actually on the finance paperwork and when you ask why none of the numbers are the same there’s a bunch of doublespeak about how: “Well, we’re paying you this much for your trade in, but we have to put this number on the paperwork, but see this number over here, it cancels that number over there so it all adds up.”
They must be hoping more teams will show up if they are assured of getting a decent check no matter where they finish. NASCAR needs new teams to replace the teams that have disappeared in recent years, or they need to entice teams that have defected to other touring series to come back. The previous payout structure was obviously not enough to entice them, especially since most of those teams will be fighting for the lower quartile of the purse.
Marshall,
In a perfect world, I would say, sure, I agree, increase purses numbers in the middle and back and get some of those teams back that left. But, when I’ve talked to some of those teams that have left and continue to race with other divisions, or team owners who have unexpectedly shut down their teams altogether, I never hear anyone say they made the decision to leave or shutdown because they didn’t like what they were getting paid. I hear a lot of reasons for why they grew disenchanted with the series, but rarely do I hear that it’s about the money being paid out. I hear they don’t like the issues that continued travel causes. I hear they don’t like taking time off from work to race on Thursday five states away from where they live. I hear they don’t like the time commitment that’s demanded even to attend many local races. I hear they don’t feel welcome at events. I hear they can’t find crew help to be competitive. I hear they don’t like pit stop rules/procedures. I hear they don’t like the tire rules. I hear they don’t like a lot of the extra added hoops that come with committing to the series. I give them all the credit in the world for increasing purses and increasing the points fund, but in the end I don’t think it will have a noticeable impact on the overall participation numbers.
Not to toot my own horn 🎷 here, but what Shawn said is what I have been saying for decades.
The owners aren’t doing this to make money, they are doing it for fun, a hobby. And they can afford it. The sunk costs, and then the recurring costs add up to millions of dollars. You people are obsessed with a couple thousand dollars in purse money. Nowadays, it costs ~$10k for a competitive team to run a typical event, and WAY more for a big event like New Hampshire. Some teams had dedicated chassis and engines for NHMS. That cost way more than first place paid.
A race can be done in one day. No need for multi-day commitments. No need to travel when tracks like Stafford and Thompson and others are still around.
The success of Tri-Track is mostly because they are local and do one day events. Keep it simple.
That little Fuller guy spoke out about how it costs him ~$10k just to roll the hauler out of the garage to get to a distant travel event. That’s just the starting the cost for that event. Do you people have any idea what it takes to prep a car????
NWMT owners have been saying there’s too much travel for decades, so what does the NWMT brain trust do? They put out schedules with more and more travel . 🧳 WTF????
The points fund and purses are red herrings. There is so much more going on that is far more impactful than the points fund and purses. How’d the SPEC motor work out? Did it produce parity?
You people are obsessed with a purse and points fund that is a tiny part of the overall picture. But it’s the only thing you get to see. You do not see what it takes to run a team and the totality of what goes on and what it takes. The time it takes to travel to these distant events is excessive. Crews have to take off from work, not everyone is a self-employed business owner that can leave and have an employee run the shop. It doesn’t look like a first place purse can cover the cost to run a distant travel event and pay for the expenses: crew lodging & meals, rental cars, air fares, and on and on and on and on and on …. And the time commitment, that’s a big one. That impacts a crew. This is a hobby, not a business. Tour Type Modified racing is a hobby, a money losing hobby, not a profit center like Cup racing. And therefore, it can get real old and tired very easily, and owners will ask themselves: “Why am I doing this?” The answer is usually, “It’s just not fun anymore.” NASCAR made it way too complicated and difficult to participate in this hobby. Too many conflicts with real life. Too many expensive stupid debacles like the SPEC engine. This is a hobby.
This is a hobby, with costs most of you have no idea. Most of you are concerned with buying that next pack of $12 cigarettes, case of beer, and filling up the tank of your overly large pickup truck. For that reason, you are wrongfully obsessed with the purse, points fund, etc. Understanding what it takes to run a competitive Tour Type Modified is out of your league. Stop trying to discuss it. You are missing so many of the facts. Just stop.
I agree and understand all those reasonings. I think NASCAR is going with the idea that money soothes all ills. The thing is they’re definitely not paying enough money to cover the costs of making those problems go away, at least not for the teams that would consider full-time. Maybe for NASCAR it’s enough to get a bunch of local field fillers, assuming there are any for every track.
Less is more, just like toilet paper.
I love the comparison to the car dealership Shawn!
A shell game…
Then you should be happy they simplified it.
It’s now “finish in this spot and make this amount of purse money” and “get this payout at the end of the year based on points”. Very simple.
Instead of the old system of “you get some money for finishing in spot X, you may qualify to be able to get more money based on points, but also you may not. And if you do qualify, you still have to know who didn’t qualify to be able to exclude them from the rankings. and even if you do qualify, you still might not end up getting anything anyway. And then you get more at the end of the year based on points.”
Zig13,
I don’t think anyone’s efforts are done with the hope of making me happy, and nor should they be. I have nothing to do with any of it. I think it’s great that it seems to be a more streamlined, straightforward system. That said, it doesn’t take away from the other factors mentioned, like the top quarter of the field actually making less money than last year and the bottom quarter of the positions getting the majority of the “increase” even though those positions are rarely filled in most races and hence rarely get paid out.
After all these great points, I learned something. A donut with no holes is a Danish. And all along, I thought bavarian cremes and jelly filled were donuts. Who knew? Shell game I guess!
The Spring Sizzler, that’s a pretty big event isn’t it? Fifth paid $2900, 10th $2500, 15th $2000, 20th $2000, 21st on down $1500. At New Smyrna 5th 4091 (+41%), 10th 3649 (+46%), 15th 3207 (+60%), 20th 2765 (+38%), 23rd on down 2500 (+67%).
Not apples to apples warning!!!
*The comparison is the Sizzlers 2024 pre race posted purse exclusive of any bonus. The Tour opener final payouts with bonus’s.
*To be in the Sizzler a team had to race Saturday, spend a lot of money to win a little just to get in the Sizzler. At New Smyrna a couple laps of qualifying and you’re in. To the Sizzlers benefit only 100 laps vs the 200 at New Smyrna but then again cautions count in one, not the other.
That out of the way the comparison is instructive isn’t it? Sizzler a huge event, the race at New Smyrna one in a 16 race, points accumulating schedule. For the purposes of this comparison not interested in the guys at the top so much as the teams that fill a field. With the limited information that’s public it’s hard to do a pure comparison but you all can make your own adjustments and conclusion based on your experience as fans. My point is it’s progress isn’t it. Can you honestly say what Whelan did for the Tour isn’t meaningful. And it was Whelen Engineering by the way, a Connecticut company located in Chester, Ct, not NASCAR funding the increase payout levels.
That idiom used “smoke and mirror shell game” it it accurate? It implies purposeful subterfuge that can only exist when one party has information their audience is not privy to. But in the case of the race at New Smyrna the purse was posted. Moreover it was a team that first alerted RaceDayCt to the fact that some finishing positions saw a decrease.
I think we can all agree that when it comes to that stated increase in payouts it’s a case of highlighting a perfect result after the season when in fact that scenario has no chance of being fulfilled. Come on man this sort of exaggeration isn’t anything new in racing or marketing in general is it? What we want to know is are the increases meaningful and can they make a difference?
We can look at this two ways. The first the one Mr. Courchesne made. The first 7 spots getting decreases year over year. No disputing that at least for the New Smyrna race but does it matter? The top seven spots change race to race and year to year. Silk obviously the beneficiary of a bump coming in 9th. The 56 and 32 who also were in the top 7 in 2024 benefited from higher payouts falling out of the top 7 in 2025. Others like the 46 and 59 rose into the top 7 from 2024 to 2025. They may have gotten short changed in relative terms but they don’t care about that they made more money simply by finishing better.
The stated goal of the increases is to increase participation. The first 8 events of the 2024 NWMT season averaged 27 cars, the second half 21. In the second half you could understand the anemic car counts for the big travel events but Monadnock, Riverhead and Thompson averaged 21. This is a realignment as well as an increase that as far as I can see is specifically targeting more team participation. If the minimum payout for the end of the field was substantially more and it was a no scheduled pit stop race with a lower tire bill would more then 19 cars show up at Riverhead? I guess we’ll find out won’t we.
Why can’t we wait and see? Mr. Courchesne’s premise is that the positions that are increased the most won’t be filled so a large portion of the announced increase is an illusion which is true. I’d suggest that since the strategy of the Tour and Whelen for that matter is to increase fields especially in Whelen’s regional home in the northeast, how about we wait until the end of the season rather then condemning them based on last year 24 car average?
After all that 24 at the end of the year may prove to be an illusion as well if the program is successful.
I’m going to give Nascar/Whelen the benefit of the doubt. I believe they would be happy to pay out 32 positions at every race. I think their intention is to increase participation not to backload a purse structure that they won’t have to pay and make themselves look good by announcing an increase.
That being said I don’t think it’ll work. Both Shawn and Dareal pointed out many reasons an extra $1000 isn’t going to bring more teams back.
Stafford did the same thing with this year Sizzler – winner used to get 20k plus lap and bonus money. This year it’s 10k plus lap and bonus money
Steve,
Once again, you’re trying entirely too hard to take a topic going on in racing that has absolutely nothing to do with Stafford Speedway and you’re trying to reshape that topic to use it to somehow make Stafford Speedway look bad. It kind of gets old here. You’re comparing apples to potatoes. Sizzler format has been Modified drastically from last year. Now a 1-day show. Less practice. No extended qualifying events the day before. Lower tire bills. New Smyrna NASCAR Modified Tour event in 2025 was the exact same thing as the New Smyrna NASCAR Modified Tour event in 2024.
Doug wrote, “ The Spring Sizzler, that’s a pretty big event isn’t it? Fifth paid $2900,…”
What was the tire bill for that Spring Sizzler? I’ll give you a hint: more than what fifth paid. And then there are all the other expenses. Thousands and thousands $$$ more.
These owners do it for fun, because they can.
Read what Shawn wrote, have someone explain it to you.
I would bet the Sizzler tire bill was less than the New Smyrna one. And most of the teams competing at the Sizzler had a bunch less travel time than the teams going to New Smyrna, along with less hotel, food, and car transporting fuel bills. Is the WMT points fund enough to offset chasing up and down the east coast all season? I’m kinda doubting that. Having enough purse $$ to cover all those additional expenses along with crewmember travel covered might make the WMT more “fun” for more teams.