NASCAR News: Kelley Earnhardt Miller reveals brutal financial reality of team ownership

JR Motorsports co-owner Kelley Earnhardt Miller has opened up on the fine margins between making a profit and making a loss when it comes to running a NASCAR team.

As we learned when financial data became public during the antitrust lawsuit between NASCAR and 23XI last year, operating as a team in the sport is not always a lucrative business.

In fact, the lawsuit revealed that in 2024, only three Cup Series organizations made money, with only one of those profiting by more than $150,000 per car, as per FOX Sports.

When NASCAR settled with 23XI and FRM in said lawsuit, it agreed to share greater revenues with its Cup Series teams, which you would hope has improved their financial situations since.

Kelly Earnhardt Miller on NASCAR team finances

However, Earnhardt Miller, whose JR Motorsports team competes in the O'Reilly Series, not Cup, says that their motivation is not making money, offering fans a rare insight into how teams operate as a business in a conversation with Joe Gibbs Racing co-owner Heather Gibbs.

“I know that fans don't always understand what it takes to run a race team,” Earnhardt Miller said on the Business of Motorsports podcast on the Dirty Mo Media channel.

“You guys [JGR] have 450 employees; I have 130, and I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh, times that by three.’ Four cup teams just the massive demand, sponsorship, partnership, all of those kinds of things.

“You said in your testimony during the lawsuit that you guys have operated on about a 2% profit margin, and I feel you. I've never really looked at our profit margin because I'm just happy if it's in the black, right? Like, it can be zero, it can be ten thousand dollars, it could be a hundred thousand dollars, and I’m just happy it’s in the black.

“I looked at ours and we're about 1.5%, so I feel you.”

Earnhardt Miller: No room for financial error in NASCAR

“JR Motorsports doesn't do this to make money, right?” Earnhardt Miller continued.

“We started our team because of the legacy of our family and the passion of racing, and from the very first days, if we were able to just ride that fence on the line of slightly profitable or not losing our butt, that was good for us.

“And I always said to Dale…you [Heather Gibbs] have 450 families, I have 130 families, and they make their living doing this. And we're fortunate in other ways that we've made a living, we've done things, Dale’s career and so on and so forth, you [Heather Gibbs] were a very accomplished realtor, and the family at Joe Gibbs.

“There's no room for error in this sport to mess up."