NASCAR Racing: Drivers winning share of prize money, contingency awards, sponsore

Question
I am curious of how NASCAR figures how much money a driver earns for a particular race. At Daytona, for instance, Dale Jr. finished more laps than Tony Stewart (171 to 2) but recieved quite a bit less of the prize money. Dale Jr. even started ahead of Tony, so it can't be the starting positions. This has also happened in the other races this year. I tried E-mailing NASCAR and the Orlando Sentinal( my local paper) about this matter but never recieved a reply. I even tried E-mailing The "John Boy and Billy" radio show. They are big into NASCAR but again no reply. At first I was only curious, but now it has turned into a quest. I'd appreciate any and all help on this matter.
                  Thank You
                  Tom Downing
              (papasmurftd@hotmail.com)


Answer
This is one of those questions I get asked quite often.
In the purse is differing amounts of contingency awards. Depending on what decals they run on their cars they receive different amounts for their finishing position. So if you run a sponsore decal you receive money according to your finish. If you don't run that decal you don't receive money. There was some controversy over this a while back when the Richard Petty car didn't receive the Busch Pole money because the #43 does not run any alcoholic beverage stickers.
There are also bigger awards that drastically change purse amounts such as the "Winners Circle" program. This adds to the purse of only a select few of the 43 car field and can mean lots more money for cars finishing behind others. This all started because of what was formally called "appearance money"; tracks paid money to certain drivers to get them to come to their tracks. Big names bring big crowds with lots of money.