“That’s $100K gone”: Kelley Earnhardt’s recent podcast guest gives an insight into ‘financial aspect’ of NHRA racing

AB Motorsports owner Antron Brown discussed the major financial construct that stands ahead of the National Hot Rod Association teams with Kelley Earnhardt. He mentioned that the severities in NHRA are quite different from NASCAR, and from a financial standpoint, there is major cash flow in the abrupt maintenance of a car.

The NHRA oversees major drag racing events in the US. Drag racing is quite different from stock racing, which NASCAR primarily sanctions. Peak engine power within the first fraction of a second is the minimum requirement, and keeping the cars stable and reliable for a thousand feet is what decides the ultimate winner. All of this, with peak power, poses a challenge to keep the cars performing.

Speaking on the "Business of Motorsports" podcast via Dirty Mo Media on Tuesday, Kelley Earnhardt inquired about the financial standpoint of owning a team in the NHRA. Four-time Top Fuel World Champion Antron Brown mentioned that paying for the errors and maintaining the cars can be quite a price. He revealed that an engine blow-up itself can cost up to 100 grand to repair.

"The biggest thing, the way we're able to sustain ourselves for one is NASCAR, they don't blow up engines like we do. When we blow up an engine, that's 100 grand going. If we can minimize our maintenance and do our maintenance and do our parts and pieces, right? And be efficient at what we do, we can save 10-fold on maintenance," he said.

When Kelley Earnhardt asked how they can save on the maintenance like he mentioned, Brown added:

"We kind of put in the budget six, but it's very easy to have 10 of them. We go to 20 events, it's very easy to have one event if you don't do things right. It's being strategic on that and being efficient on that. See, some people go, oh, we can go longer on this. Oh, we can go longer on that. We can go, no, no, we can't."

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Kelley Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. sign the year-ending grant for charity

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. was seen signing the year-end grant for the Dale Jr. Foundation with his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller in a social media post in December. The two have been working together since the inception of the foundation in 2017. It primarily focuses on helping young individuals who have remained underprivileged.

The Foundation's social media platform shared a post where the brother-sister duo were seen signing the grant as 2024 came to an end.

"Season of giving. We’re thankful to be able to support some amazing organizations with our year-end grant giving. Thank you to everyone who has supported the foundation this year! We couldn’t do it without you!" Dale Jr. Foundation tweeted.

Kelley Earnhardt Miller is the CEO of JR Motorsports, which she co-owns with her brother.