To start with, Formula One has just 24 drivers, while NASCAR fields 50 entrants. Stock cars can reach speeds of about 200 miles per hour, just a bit slower than F1's 205. But NASCAR drivers experience only about 2Gs of lateral force during, at most courses, only four left-hand turns. F1 drivers endure 5Gs in multiple left-and right-hand turns.
The Daytona 500, NASCAR's best-attended venue, counted 182,000 fans this year. Formula One's biggest attendance is at the Australian Grand Prix where 298,000 fans came out to watch. Those fans helped finance F1's best-paid driver, Fernando Alonso. He makes $37 million a year. NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr. pulls in $28 million. That's an average of $1.85 million per race for Alonso, who only competes in 20 events. Earnhardt Jr., however, has 36 races to drive in and averages about $778,000 a race.
The infographic is fun, if a bit skewed against NASCAR, especially when considering Red Bull was a NASCAR driver sponsor until the end of the 2011 season. Sour grapes perhaps?
