Indy 500 Racing Drivers All Took Home a Sizeable Purse on Sunday

Team Penske's Will Power, the honorable winner of the 500-mile vehicular marathon, got the biggest portion of the purse, of course, which this year totaled a massive $13,078,065. The Indy 500 purse consists of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Verizon IndyCar Series awards, plus other special awards from sponsors, organizers and such.

Power, the charismatic racer from Toowoomba, Australia, took home a grand total of $2,525,454, while home-town hero Ed Carpenter got a check for $911,504 for his second-place finish. Chip Ganassi racer Scott Dixon brought home a worthwhile $587,129 for landing the highest-scoring Honda of the field in third place.

As you'll see in the amounts below, the dollar amount isn't always related to the drivers' final positions. The purse is calculated with several variables in mind, such as fastest laps, the number of laps led, and how many laps were completed by each driver. As a result, Tony Kanaan, who led several dozen laps and crashed out of the race with only 11 laps to go, received a higher amount for his 25th place than Gabby Chaves did for his 14th-place finish.