NASCAR is in discussions about investing millions of dollars into a new driver incentive program that would start in 2025 and reward the sport‘s leading spokespeople for promoting it more, according to people familiar with the matter. Earlier this year, sources say that NASCAR started having private discussions with teams and drivers about the proposed initiative, which would start when the new media rights agreements begin if agreed upon by the relevant stakeholders. The current media rights deals, with NBC Sports and Fox Sports, expire after 2024, meaning the sides still have upward of a year to finalize this system.
The Daytona Beach-based company is said to be preparing to invest millions of dollars into the program, with one person familiar with the talks putting the figure at $20 million to start. The program would be funded at least in part through NASCAR‘s media rights dollars. The sport currently makes $820 million per year for media rights from Fox and NBC but is expecting that average annual value to be higher from 2025 on.
The structure for the driver incentive system is still being worked through, but one idea is a rankings-based approach, with credits awarded throughout the season for services performed and then money paid out at the end of the year.
