The landscape of NASCAR has changed dramatically over the last few years, especially with the recent retirements of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth and the pending retirement of Danica Patrick following the Daytona 500.
How do their departures impact the Twitter landscape when it comes announced full-time Cup drivers for 2018 and their number of followers?
A lot, specifically at the top.
Before getting to the list, here’s a few notes:
- Not included are Earnhardt (2.3 million followers), Patrick (1.8 million followers) and Kenseth (364,709 followers).
- Each driver’s replacement - Alex Bowman, Aric Almirola and Erik Jones - are in the bottom eight.
- Paul Menard, who will drive the No. 21 Ford for Wood Brothers Racing, is not on Twitter.
- Click here for the top eight among Cup drivers in May 2015
- Click here for the rankings in March 2016.
Here are how many Twitter followers each full-time Cup driver has as of Jan. 2, 2018. We’ll revisit this list in December to see how the drivers rank after the season.
Jimmie Johnson – 2,636,014 (@jimmiejohnson)
Kasey Kahne - 963,189 (@kaseykahne)
Kevin Harvick - 954,433 (@kevinharvick)
Kyle Busch - 899,151 (@kylebusch)
Brad Keselowski - 766,394 (@keselowski)
Denny Hamlin - 763,325 (@dennyhamlin)
Chase Elliott – 733,157 (@chaseelliott)
Clint Bowyer - 626,345 (@ClintBowyer)
Joey Logano - 472,237 (@joeylogano)
Martin Truex Jr. - 423,074 (@MartinTruex_Jr)
Ryan Newman - 367,002 (@RyanJNewman)
Kyle Larson – 349,659 (@kylelarsonracin)
Kurt Busch - 342,699 (@KurtBusch)
Jamie McMurray – 317,209 (@jamiemcmurray)
Trevor Bayne - 272,939 (@TBayne6)
Austin Dillon - 270,967 (@AustinDillon3)
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - 227,632 (@StenhouseJr)
AJ Allmendinger - 217,197 (@AJDinger)
Ryan Blaney - 161,730 (@Blaney)
Ty Dillon - 156,602 (@TyDillon)
Darrell Wallace Jr. - 126,473 (@BubbaWallace)
David Ragan - 121,643 (@DavidRagan)
Aric Almirola - 112,423 (@aric_almirola)
Michael McDowell - 88,435 (@Mc_Driver)
Alex Bowman – 58,194 (@AlexBRacing)
Erik Jones - 53,041 (@erik_jones)
Matt DiBenedetto - 49,495 (@MattDRacing)
Daniel Suarez - 41,081 (@Daniel_SuarezG)
Chris Buescher - 38,981 (@Chris_Buescher)
William Byron – 36,169 (@WilliamByron)
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