Revealed: The crazy cash teams pay NASCAR for internet at tracks

How much do you pay for your home internet connection? Maybe $40, $50 a month? (It's okay, this isn't an ad, it's just a framing device, you can keep reading).

It's not the worst price in the world. Maybe when you're out of town you can hotspot off your phone, or find a coffee shop to sit in and do a bit of work on their wifi. All very manageable, not especially bank-breaking. Right?

Thank your lucky stars that you aren't a NASCAR team – your bills would be heading upward. Sharply. Really, really sharply.

A small part of the financial documents made public during 23XI Racing's lawsuit against NASCAR showed just how much the team paid the sport's governing body for 'Internet & Data Analytics' in 2024.

23XI reveal huge cost for at-track internet

That sum? $168,357. If you're keeping track, that's...a little bit more than you'd pay for your home internet, even if the companies really started gouging.

Why on earth pay that much to NASCAR just for the privilege of being hooked up to an internet connection? Well, the package also includes telemetry, communications, and in-car video. The things that are just about essential to run a competitive racing team at any track.

There's also another ~$42,500 a year on analytics from SMT, another near-essential for teams which they license from NASCAR in order to stay afloat on track.

Some teams do bring their own Starlink routers to the track (at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars more), but as a complement to the NASCAR-provided connection, rather than a replacement. After all, that connection doesn't have the telemetry, in-car comms and the like that NASCAR still controls.

The Starlink routers do have one advantage though. When the NASCAR system goes on the fritz – not an uncommon occurrence – they at least have a backup. Well worth the money...?