Warren Johnson raced for the money because sponsorships and race winnings were his only source of income. How many people actually earn enough from racing to break even against the cost of competing, much less profit from it?

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I suppose I can add my own perspective to the thread. When I raced motocross regularly, it was a test of my riding skills and machine preparation & tuning skills against everyone else behind the starting gate. I wasn't fast enough to compete in a class where there was any payout for top finishes, so it was all for personal satisfaction.

Street racing cars was fun & ego, plus the possibility of a few extra dollars in my wallet.

Bracket racing was a technical exercise more so than driving skills for me. I didn't do it regularly enough to be really good at it, but I won one race and sometimes was happy just not going out in the first round.

As infrequently as I even get the track now, it's mostly to chase ETs and finding ways to make the car faster, i.e. a technical exercise more than anything. Whether there are opportunities to either bracket race again, or maybe try out a local 10.0 index class remains to be seen.