The Winston Cup leader bonus began in 1996 and has never been higher than it will be this weekend. The bonus goes to a driver who wins a race and is the points leader at the end of that race. It begins at $10,000 and rolls over each week it isn’t won. Dale Jarrett won it by winning the Daytona 500 to start the season, of course, but it hasn’t been won since and stands at $160,000. That ties the record set back in 1996. Jeff Gordon won an additional $160,000 when he won at Talladega in July of that year(That’s Racin’)(6-28-2000)
