Pay driver

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Pay driver" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A pay driver is a driver for a professional auto racing team who, instead of being paid by the owner of their car, drives for free and brings with them either personal sponsorship or personal or family funding to finance the team's operations. This may be done to gain on-track experience or to live the lifestyle of a driver in a particular series when one's talent or credentials do not merit a paying ride. Alternatively, said person is also called a ride buyer or a rich kid in the United States, a gentleman driver in sports car and GT racing and a privateer in Australia.

Pay drivers have been the norm in many of the feeder series of motorsport, particularly in Formula 2, Formula 3, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and Indy NXT. However, there have been many pay drivers in top level series like Formula One, Champ Car, IndyCar Series, and the NASCAR Cup Series.

Beyond these series, there are many, many auto racing competitions intended primarily or exclusively for self-funded amateurs who compete for fun, usually without serious aspirations of competing professionally. While the term "gentleman driver" is occasionally applied to racers in such series, this article focuses on the highest-profile professional auto racing categories.