Sponsor money is off and team owners are cutting the percentage allocated to driver salaries. The car is more important than the driver, and funds are allocated that way. Incoming drivers are getting six-figure salaries with a cut of other revenue, but their total comp tends to be in the low millions,  far cry from Nascar's heady days. Incentives are playing a bigger role in contracts more than ever before.

The sport’s most valuable team, Hendrick Motorsports, filled its two open driver slots, Earnhardt and Kahne, with 19-year-old William Byron and 24-year-old Alex Bowman. Top drivers used to race well into their 40s, but Johnson and Kevin Harvick are now the oldest in the sport at 42.

One driver who failed to crack the top 12 in 2017 but will shoot up Forbes’ next look at the top-earning drivers is Elliott. He replaced Gordon in the famed No. 24 car in 2016 (Elliott moved to the No. 9 car for 2018 for Hendrick). Elliott didn’t reach the winner’s circle in 2017, but his merchandise flew off the racks and sales ranked second behind only Earnhardt. Elliott signed a four-year contract extension in June with Hendrick that boosts his salary to the mid-seven figures range.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired at the end of the 2017 Nascar season after nearly two decades in the spotlight as the most famous progeny in the sport. Earnhardt failed to reach Victory Lane last year, but he cemented his spot at the top among fans with his 15^th straight year, winning Nascar’s Most Popular Driver award. He was named on 68% of the votes cast by fans.

Earnhardt also nabbed another title before taking his talents to the NBC broadcast booth. The 43-year-old recaptured his place as the highest-earning driver in his swansong season after a one-year hiatus where Jimmie Johnson usurped him. Earnhardt earned $22 million in 2017 by Forbes’ count, thanks to Nascar’s highest salary and top merchandise sales.

Earnhardt was Nascar’s top-earner for seven straight years until 2016, when a concussion sidelined him for the final 18 races of the season and Johnson captured his seventh Cup championship, plus the roughly $2 million Cup title bonus (Jeff Gordon was the last driver to surpass Earnhardt before that).

Dale Jr. posted only one top-five finish in 2017, but fans gobbled up his merchandise along each stop on the Nascar circuit. Earnhardt’s No. 88 car commanded nearly $1 million per race from sponsors, pushing his driver salary to the top of the charts. The two-time Daytona 500 winner also generated roughly $4 million from personal endorsement partners like Nationwide, Chevrolet, Goody’s and Wrangler.

Nationwide has been an Earnhardt sponsor since 2008 (it added a primary car sponsorship in 2014). In January, Nationwide announced plans to continue to use Earnhardt as a company spokesman in a multi-year deal.

Earnhardt's estimated career earnings of $410 million from salary and endorsements, as well as his cut of winnings and merchandise sales, rank second all time among drivers. Only Gordon earned more.

Johnson ranked second with total earnings of $19.2 million, as he finished a disappointing 10^th in the final Cup standings. Johnson signed a contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports last year to drive the No. 48 car through at least 2020. The new deal should keep him at the top of driver earnings chart with Earnhardt's retirement.

Rounding out the top five are Kyle Busch ($14.7 million), Denny Hamlin ($14.6 million) and Kevin Harvick ($13.6 million).

Nascar has a bevy of up-and-coming drivers in Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney. But the retirement of Earnhardt, Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Danica Patrick and Matt Kenseth in recent years leaves a gaping hole in the sport.

Those six drivers all ranked among the top 10 in merchandise sales in 2013. Ratings for the 2018 Daytona 500 on Fox—won by Dillon with Wallace in second—were off 23% compared to the prior year and the lowest ever for Nascar's signature race. Ratings were less than half from a dozen years ago on NBC.

Nascar Driver Ratings By Track

The retirements of the sport’s old guard give team owners a chance to reset salaries, a necessity with sponsorship money off for most cars. The top 12 drivers earned $155 million last year, down 20% from 2009. The total will drop again next year with Earnhardt, Patrick and Kenseth leaving the sport, as well as Kasey Kahne taking a huge pay cut in moving from Hendrick Motorsports to Leavine Family Racing.

Every driver contract is different, but experienced drivers traditionally commanded salaries of roughly one-third of the sponsorship dollars committed to the car. Drivers were also entitled to a cut of race winnings and merchandise.

Sponsor money is off and team owners are cutting the percentage allocated to driver salaries. The car is more important than the driver, and funds are allocated that way. Incoming drivers are getting six-figure salaries with a cut of other revenue, but their total comp tends to be in the low millions, far cry from Nascar's heady days. Incentives are playing a bigger role in contracts more than ever before.

The sport’s most valuable team, Hendrick Motorsports, filled its two open driver slots, Earnhardt and Kahne, with 19-year-old William Byron and 24-year-old Alex Bowman. Top drivers used to race well into their 40s, but Johnson and Kevin Harvick are now the oldest in the sport at 42.

One driver who failed to crack the top 12 in 2017 but will shoot up Forbes’ next look at the top-earning drivers is Elliott. He replaced Gordon in the famed No. 24 car in 2016 (Elliott moved to the No. 9 car for 2018 for Hendrick). Elliott didn’t reach the winner’s circle in 2017, but his merchandise flew off the racks and sales ranked second behind only Earnhardt. Elliott signed a four-year contract extension in June with Hendrick that boosts his salary to the mid-seven figures range.