Dale Earnhardt Jr. was ranked ninth in a July 2006 list of the 50 highest-paid athletes in America published by Sports Illustrated, which estimates salary and endorsement income gathered from various sources:
Athlete
Sport
Salary
Endorsements
Total
1. Tiger Woods
Golf
$10,628,024
$87,000,000
$97,628,024
2. Phil Mickelson
Golf
$5,971,710
$40,000,000
$45,971,710
3. Shaquille O'Neal
NBA
$20,000,000
$14,000,000
$34,000,000
4. Kobe Bryant
NBA
$15,656,932
$8,000,000
$33,656,832
5. Carson Palmer
NFL
$30,750,000
$800,000
$31,550,000
6. LeBron James
NBA
$4,621,800
$24,000,000
$21,621,800
7. Derek Jeter
Baseball
$21,000,000
$7,000,000
$28,000,000
8. Alex Rodriguez
Baseball
$21,000,000
$6,000.000
$27,000,000
9. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
NASCAR
$5,761,830
$20,000,000
$25,761,830 *
10. Michael Vick
NFL
$18,400,000
$7,000,000
$25,400,000
* Earnhardt's total salary here excludes merchandise totals.
How much money does Dale Earnhardt Jr. actually make in a year? Here's our best conservative guess:
SALARY AND WINNINGS
$6 million
Typically, a NASCAR driver gets a base salary plus a percentage (usually 50 percent for top drivers) of the money his team wins.
ENDORSEMENTS
$20 million
Earnhardt Jr. also gets paid by his teams sponsors and from sponsors hes associated with personally.
MERCHANDISE
$15 million?
Accurate numbers are virtually impossible to get, and a lot of people take a slice out of royalties off the sale of apparel, die cast cars and everything else with a drivers name or likeness on them. But one source said Earnhardt Jr. accounts for 30 percent of all NASCAR merchandise sales. Even if the driver gets only a small taste in each deal, it adds up nicely.
