NASCAR’s Swear Jar Is Already Up to $3,305 Just 3 Races Into the Chase

Three races. 661 swear words. $3,305.

NASCAR’s newest Chase tradition is getting expensive in a hurry.

When NASCAR introduced its “swear jar” ahead of the postseason, the premise was simple: Every expletive uttered over a Cup Series radio channel would add another $5 to a running total, with the money ultimately going to charity.

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Three weeks later, the jar is filling up at an impressive rate.

NASCAR drivers and teams combined for another 193 expletives during Saturday night’s 500-lap race at Bristol Motor Speedway, pushing the Chase total to 661 and the value of the swear jar to $3,305.

And somehow, considering everything that happened at Bristol, 193 was actually the lowest total of the postseason so far.

Bristol Somehow Produced the Fewest Swears of the Chase

The Chase opened at Darlington with 223 recorded expletives before the total climbed to 245 at Gateway.

Then came Bristol.

Five hundred laps around a half-mile short track. A record 18 cautions. Tempers boiling over. Ryan Blaney and Carson Hocevar crashing while battling for second and eventually trading punches on pit road.

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Surely this would be the week NASCAR’s swear jar really took a beating.

Nope.

Bristol’s 193 radio expletives brought the three-race tally to 661, but it was 30 fewer than Darlington and 52 fewer than Gateway.

There is an important distinction here: NASCAR is counting what is said over the Cup Series radio channels.

So Blaney dropping an F-bomb on live television after leaving the infield care center doesn’t pad the total. Neither do whatever colorful words may have been exchanged when Blaney and Hocevar came face-to-face after the race.

In other words, Bristol managed 193 counted swears. The unofficial total from the weekend is anybody’s guess.

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One Word Is Absolutely Running Away With NASCAR’s Swear Jar

NASCAR has also started keeping a leaderboard, and there isn’t much suspense at the top.

Through the first three Chase races, the F-word has been recorded 323 times. That’s nearly half of every expletive NASCAR has counted.

Nothing else is particularly close.

The S-word sits a distant second with 152 uses, followed by “hell” at 59, “ass” at 40 and “damn” at 26. NASCAR’s leaderboard also lists “dammit” at 16, “piss” at 11 and another four-letter favorite at 10.

The running total puts NASCAR on a pretty entertaining pace considering there are still seven races remaining in the Chase.

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At the current rate of roughly 220 expletives per race, the Cup Series would finish the 10-race postseason with somewhere around 2,200 swears, turning NASCAR’s $5-per-word idea into an approximately $11,000 contribution.

Of course, expecting NASCAR drivers to swear at a consistent rate might be asking a lot.

Kansas, the Charlotte Roval, Talladega and Martinsville are still ahead.

There are plenty of opportunities left to make this jar considerably more expensive.