The NASCAR regular season came to a close last week with the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In a season dominated by talk of a ‘Big 3’ champion — Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., or Kyle Busch — it was wild card Joey Logano who roared past the pack to take home the crown.
Throughout the regular season, NASCAR drivers took to social to build their brands beyond the speedway. While Logano captured the momentum from his end-of-the-season success to become one of the most engaging drivers in the sport, the biggest winners may have been NASCAR’s seasoned vets. Several established stars — specifically Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, and recently retired drivers Danica Patrick and Kasey Kahne — continued to move up the ranks and build large audiences on social.
Now that all three title winners have taken home their hardware, we look back at the social MVPs of the NASCAR regular season. Kyle Busch led all drivers in engagements and total video views, with Danica Patrick coming in a close second. Busch and Patrick both sit near the top in nearly every category. They, along with Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick, illustate how NASCAR has become an athlete-driven power in the United States, and why the drivers and sport could benefit by sharing even more.
NASCAR’s athlete-driven leaderboard
Below is the performance analysis for every active NASCAR driver of the 2018 season on social. We break down the data by audience, activity, engagement, and growth on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram from February 11, 2018, to November 18, 2018.
Audience
- Jimmie Johnson — 4.1 million followers
- Danica Patrick — 3.9 million followers
- Kevin Harvick — 1.8 million followers
- Kyle Busch — 1.6 million followers
- Kasey Kahne — 1.6 million followers
Twitter
- Jimmie Johnson — 2.6 million followers
- Danica Patrick — 1.9 million followers
- Kasey Kahne — 986.8 thousand followers
- Kevin Harvick — 981 thousand followers
- Kyle Busch — 897.5 thousand followers
facebook
- Danica Patrick — 1.4 million followers
- Jimmie Johnson — 391.2 thousand followers
- Kevin Harvick — 563.3 thousand followers
- Kyle Busch — 463.8 thousand followers
- Kasey Kahne — 389.6 thousand followers
instagram
- Danica Patrick — 653.1 thousand followers
- Jimmie Johnson — 391.2 thousand followers
- Kevin Harvick — 292.3 thousand followers
- Chase Elliott — 262.6 thousand followers
- Kyle Busch — 240.8 thousand followers
Activity
- Joey Gase — 2,805 posts
- Chad Finchum — 2,009 posts
- Joey Logano — 1,348 posts
- Kyle Busch — 1,321 posts
- Parker Kligerman — 1,218 posts
Twitter
- Joey Gase — 2,082 posts
- Chad Finchum — 1,309 posts
- Parker Kligerman — 1078 posts
- Daniel Suárez — 917 posts
- Gray Gaulding — 714 posts
facebook
- Joey Gase — 545 posts
- Kyle Busch — 504 posts
- David Ragan — 482 posts
- Martin Truex Jr — 433 posts
- Ross Chastain — 374 posts
instagram
- Joey Logano — 408 posts
- Chad Finchum — 328 posts
- Kyle Busch — 324 posts
- Aric Almirola — 302 posts
- Erik Jones — 233 posts
Engagement
- Kyle Busch — 3.9 million engagements
- Danica Patrick — 3.7 million engagements
- Jimmie Johnson — 2.2 million engagements
- Chase Elliott — 1.7 million engagements
- Joey Logano — 1.6 million engagements
Twitter
- Jimmie Johnson — 830.3 thousand engagements
- Bubba Wallace — 701.5 thousand engagements
- Clint Bowyer — 591.1 thousand engagements
- Ryan Blaney — 543.3 thousand engagements
- Kyle Busch — 534.7 thousand engagements
facebook
- Kyle Busch — 1.3 million engagements
- Danica Patrick — 578.4 thousand engagements
- Chase Elliott — 556.7 thousand engagements
- Jimmie Johnson — 450.5 thousand engagements
- Martin Truex Jr. — 335.1 thousand engagements
instagram
- Danica Patrick — 2.9 million engagements
- Kyle Busch — 2 million engagements
- Joey Logano — 1.1 million engagements
- Austin Dillon — 1 million engagements
- Jimmie Johnson — 942.7 thousand engagements
Engagement Rate
*min 18 posts
- Jeffrey Earnhardt — 2.66%
- William Byron — 2.51%
- Ryan Blaney — 2.16%
- Kurt Busch — 2.02%
- Matt DiBenedetto — 1.90%
Twitter
- Ryan Blaney — 1.26%
- Bubba Wallace — 0.87%
- Matt Kenseth — 0.83%
- Aric Almirola — 0.51%
- Martin Truex Jr. — 0.48%
facebook
- Chase Elliott — 0.92%
- Matt Kenseth — 0.87%
- Kasey Kahne — 0.61%
- Kurt Busch — 0.60%
- Kyle Busch — 0.58%
instagram
- Ryan Blaney — 10.29%
- Chase Elliott — 9.97%
- Kyle Larson — 5.78%
- Bubba Walace — 5.77%
- Clint Bowyer — 4.96%
Growth
- Daniel Suárez — 139.7 thousand followers
- Bubba Wallace — 137.2 thousand followers
- Chase Elliott — 131.3 thousand followers
- Ryan Blaney — 89.5 thousand followers
- Danica Patrick — 68.2 thousand followers
Twitter
- Chase Elliott — 62.2 thousand followers
- Bubba Wallace — 53.3 thousand followers
- Ryan Blaney — 43.9 thousand followers
- Kyle Larson — 33.5 thousand followers
- Kurt Busch — 26 thousand followers
facebook
- Daniel Suárez — 108.2 thousand fans
- Bubba Wallace — 33.8 thousand fans
- Erik Jones — 25.1 thousand fans
- Jeffrey Earnhardt — 21.5 thousand fans
- Chase Elliott — 16.4 thousand fans
instagram
- Danica Patrick — 123.8 thousand followers
- Chase Elliott — 52.8 thousand followers
- Bubba Wallace — 50.1 thousand followers
- Kyle Busch — 38.2 thousand followers
- Kurt Busch — 35.3 thousand followers
Growth Rate
- Daniel Suárez — 142.81%
- Bubba Wallace — 57.40%
- Erik Jones — 47.83%
- Jeffrey Earnhardt — 42.27%
- William Byron — 34.48%
Twitter
- Bubba Wallace — 41.15%
- Ryan Blaney — 26.06%
- Aric Almirola — 11.90%
- Kyle Larson — 9.26%
- Chase Elliott — 8.34%
facebook
- Daniel Suárez — 428.99%
- Bubba Wallace — 79.26%
- Erik Jones — 77.21%
- Jeffrey Earnhardt — 60.65%
- Ryan Blaney — 29.07%
instagram
- Bubba Wallace — 74.99%
- Kurt Busch — 45.78%
- Ryan Blaney — 37.69%
- Clint Bowyer — 25.78%
- Chase Elliott — 25.16%