The Daytona 500 — also known as the Great American Race — is one of the most challenging events on the NASCAR Cup Series calendar. It’s a crown jewel event thanks to its historical heft, but it’s also one of the most challenging events of the year thanks to the high-speed nature of the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

Now imagine kicking off your race season with the highlight of the year. It’d be like the World Endurance Championship opening the season with the 24 Hours of Le Mans: Everyone would be getting up to speed with their new teams and new technology for the first time that year, all while trying to make history.

And if that weren’t enough pressure, the Daytona 500 also boasts the biggest prize purse of the NASCAR Cup Series season — and in 2025, there will be a record-breaking purse.

Bob Pockrass over at Fox Sports snagged the full total for the 2025 Daytona 500 prize purse: $30,331,250.

The purse for the Great American Race has never been higher, and in fact, it has jumped around $2 million when compared to the purse for 2024. And, in the past decade, the event has seen a $10 million increase in the overall prize purse.

Even though the overall purse is reported, NASCAR still keeps its cars close to its chest when it comes to discussing distribution. In 2024, Pockrass reported that the winner of the race likely took home somewhere between $1.5 and $2 million — but the actual figure depends on a lot of factors, and 2025’s earnings will likely be somewhere closer to $2.5 to $3 million.

See, NASCAR relies on a certain formula to determine its prize money distribution. One such factor in that formula is team success and longevity; if a front-running team like Penske were to secure a Daytona 500 victory with one of its drivers, it would earn more money for that win than would a car from a backmarker like Kaulig Racing. That’s because NASCAR factors in the points finish of those teams for the past three years when determining prize money.

As you can tell, winners only receive a fraction of the record-setting purse, as that $30 million needs to be distributed between 41 starters in 2025.

The Cup Series isn’t the only NASCAR-sanctioned series to compete at Daytona over the 500 weekend. The Truck and Xfinity Series — NASCAR’s equivalent to Formula 3 and Formula 2, respectively — also compete in the buildup to Sunday’s big race.

The total purse for the Xfinity Series this season was $3,762,952, while the Truck Series purse was $1,262,900.