Sometimes, $1 million isn't quite as much as it seems

The amount still has an almost magical ring to it, and why shouldn't it? For a sport with backwoods roots, $1 million still seems like a lot of money. The figure provided NASCAR with an economic landmark in 1985 when Bill Elliott won the first Winston Million, a sign that the series was going big-time. Other breakthroughs followed: 1998, when Dale Earnhardt became the first Daytona 500 winner to earn $1 million; 1989, when Rusty Wallace became the first champion to earn a $1 million bonus; and 2003, when Jimmie Johnson became the first all-star race winner to cash a $1 million check.

Top drivers earn many million dollars a year these days, but the opportunity to earn $1 million in one night is still a tremendous incentive for so many men who survived lean, early days when they needed a high finish just to make enough money to get to the next race. Saturday night's Sprint All-Star Race isn't really an all-star event at all, given that it involves the same drivers who compete against one another every other week. But what sets it apart is that big jackpot at the finish, which last season was $1.03 million. Of all the events on the NASCAR circuit, only the Daytona 500 pays more than what is essentially a 100-lap exhibition run.

"I think that it could pay $1 and everybody would still go all out. We're that fierce of competitors when we go out there on the racetrack," three-time all-star winner Jeff Gordon said. But: "I think the fact that there's money on the line might bring a little more excitement to it. It sort of dangles that carrot out in front of you, and really makes you go after it that much harder."

So it promises to be a big night, full of the usual crash-bang action that's helped make the all-star race famous, with that big check -- literally and figuratively -- waiting on the winner. Give plenty of credit to sponsor Sprint and track promoter Humpy Wheeler for upping the ante. And then try to forget that athletes in other sports have the opportunity to win $1 million on a much more regular basis.

All-Star Race

SPEED will again broadcast the Sprint Showdown and All-Star Race. Tune in at 7 p.m. ET on May 17 to watch rivals race for $1 million -- and the fireworks!

• All-Star coverage

Here's a little secret: comparatively speaking, drivers are underpaid, sometimes vastly so. To their credit, none of these guys are going to complain. Jimmie Johnson took home $7 million for winning the championship last year, and by all accounts was quite satisfied with it. To the many drivers who came from humble beginnings, NASCAR is a gravy train that's made them rich beyond their wildest dreams. But in most cases, the race winnings haven't kept pace with the rising costs of the sport. Purses have been relegated to pocket change. Other athletes are taking home a lot more money, without ever having to put on a helmet and fireproof suit.

Take March 9, for example. On that day a little-known golfer named Sean O'Hair won a little-known PGA Tour event called the PODS Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla., pocketing $954,000 in the process. That same afternoon, Kyle Busch won the Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. And for this far more dangerous endeavor, Busch earned $194,175 -- a little more than what the eighth-place finisher earned in the golf tournament, and about enough to buy a two-inch-wide sponsor's decal on the C-pillar of his No. 18 racecar.

It's like that every week. Busch earns $313,700 for winning the NASCAR event at Darlington Raceway, and the next day Sergio Garcia wins $1.71 million for winning the PGA Tour's Players Championship. In NASCAR, only the Daytona 500 and the All-Star Race pay the winner more than $1 million. On the PGA Tour, 13 of 21 events thus far this season have paid more than $1 million to win, and every event in the United States has paid more than $900,000. Don't' dismiss the comparison -- like racecar drivers, golfers are independent contractors who depend on sponsorship for their livelihood. And while many drivers earn a nice salary, golfers often earn much more in product endorsements, and Phil Mickelson doesn't run the risk of hitting a wall at 200 mph.

Men's tennis players have at least five opportunities every year to earn $1 million, with each of the grand slams and the year-end masters' tournament paying at least that much to the champion. In Sports Illustrated's 2007 ranking of the 50 richest athletes in America, only three NASCAR drivers made the list -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. at No. 10, Gordon at No. 16 and Johnson at 31. Your two-time defending series champion was outranked by golfer Michelle Wie, who's never won anything, and soon-to-be-retired pro basketball players Chris Webber and Jalen Rose.

Again, this is all relative. To you, me or Dr. Evil, $1 million is a whole lot of money. But in a sport where it costs $20 million in sponsorship dough to field a competitive racecar on the Sprint Cup circuit, $207,391 -- what Denny Hamlin earned for winning at Martinsville -- is almost an embarrassingly small amount. Roger Federer or Tiger Woods can make that much by finishing 10th. Fernando Alonso can make that much by showing up. Big teams in NASCAR are able to make up the gap in sponsorship money. But if winning is supposed to be so important, how about a little more cash to back it up?

Saturday night will bring one of the few exceptions, a race where there really is big money on the line. Then reality sets in and the regular events return. Casey Mears won $371,425 for winning the Coca-Cola 600 last season. That same week, Rory Sabbatini earned $1.08 million for winning the Colonial tournament on the PGA Tour. No wonder so many drivers say they race primarily for the trophy.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.