2018 Indy 500 purse: Will Power takes home $2.5 million in prize money

Will Power won the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500, which means he will be forever immortalized as a winner of one of the most prestigious races in all of motorsports. It also means he’s in line for a big payday. Power made $2,525,454 million for his victory, out of a total purse of $13,078,065 million (19.31 percent)

Ed Carpenter earned $911,504 for finishing in second-place. Scott Dixon, who finished third, earned $587,129, according to a release by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The total purse for the entire field has grown by over $10 million since the 1980’s, but the winning driver’s cut varies. The entire purse includes different kinds of payouts, including a lap prize fund of $50,000 that pays out $250 for every lap a driver leads. The pole winner, Ed Carpenter, also took home a chunk of the purse for winning qualifying.

The purse is made up of of money that comes from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the sanctioning body of IndyCar, sponsors and television networks. Originally, only the top 12 finishers receivers money, but by 1924, the entire field was taking home some form of prize, as reported by the Indy Star.

Last year, Takuma Sato took home $2.4 million for winning the Indy 500, but that accounted for just 18.7 percent of the total purse. He actually earned less than Alexander Rossi did for winning it in 2016 ($2.5 million, or 19.2 percent of the purse, per the Indy Star).

The total purse for every Indy 500 through 2017 is $349,930,714, according to the official IMS website. That’s a lot of money going to drivers, but also quite a bit going to team owners and of course, the costs associated with competing in the Indy 500, which run rather high.