Takuma Sato Made $2.5 Million for Winning the 2017 Indy 500

Winning the biggest race of the year in any series tends to earn the victor a pretty large sum. Takuma Sato experienced that for himself on Sunday when he conquered the 101st running of the Indy 500, receiving a purse of $2.5 million. That’s a tremendous amount of cash, especially when you consider that runner-up Helio Castroneves was paid just under $771,000 for finishing right behind him. 

Here’s a list of a few things Sato could purchase with his cash prize:

• This Six-Mile 1993 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 3.8 — $2.25 Million
• McLaren’s Upcoming Three Seat Hypercar — $2.5 Million
• 205 MPH Italdesign Zerouno Supercar — $1.6 Million

But hey, who’s counting? Sure enough, Sato won’t take all of that money home. There are loads of taxes and fees that aren’t figured into that $2.5 million lump sum, but even after all of that, the driver is still in for a monumental payday.

Last place competitor Jay Howard was awarded $200,305, and he didn’t even finish the race. Fernando Alonso, who suffered an engine failure that put him out of the running, won $305,805—merely 0.76 percent of his annual salary with the McLaren F1 team including bonuses. 

Collectively, there was more than $13.2 million in prize money given out to the 33 2017 Indy 500 participants. The race lasted just over three hours, meaning that the drivers were paid approximately $4.4 million per hour as a whole. Not too shabby.