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Blog: Fast times at Twitter High

Steve Kim

Danica Patrick

Danica Patrick

Action Sports Photography

Social networking is like high school. The main aim is for each person to become popular by having more 'followers' (Twitter) and more 'likes' (Facebook). The exchanges are mostly trivial, chatty, nonsensical. Then there are reflections, rumors and controversial messages from time to time.

The racer twitter ranges from timely photos such as Keselowski tweeting at the Daytona 500, providing close up images of Montoya's wreckage to random chit chat such as Danica Patrick telling her fans, "my dream has come true - the sequel to Anchorman is going to be made! Good odens raven!!!!!"

In this high school environment, who is leading? Who is lagging? Who is the most active? Least active? In order to find out, I tallied the twitter statistics of the Sprint Cup drivers (as of March 29, 2012). Here are some conclusions:

Juan Pablo Montoya, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Juan Pablo Montoya, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

1. Homecoming Queen It's Danica Patrick with 572,052 followers. She has more twitter followers than any other racer in Sprint Cup.

2. Leading Man Juan Pablo, please stand up and take a bow. He has 510,049 followers. That's twice as high as the next person, Brad Keselowski, who has 257,006 followers.

3. Most Active Kenny Wallace has been busy tweeting with 23,685 tweets in all. No one comes close. Kyle Busch is the next active with 13,375.

4. Least Active Dale Earnhardt Jr., the perennial most popular driver, is also the least active tweeter. He has never tweeted. He does have a very strong following on Facebook with 1,318,496 fans. As a point of comparison, Danica Patrick and Juan Pablo Montoya have 116,163 and 86,648 Facebook fans respectively. Tony Stewart is also inactive with only one tweet that drives the fans to his main web page.

5. Least Followed Casey Mears. But he hardly tweets -- all together 5 times overall.

6. Most Following Joe Nemechek. He follows 13,465 tweeters, which is about as many as his followers.

The table below has the drivers, @ID and tweeting statistics.

Driver Twitter @ ID Follower Following # of Tweets
Danica Patrick '@danicapatrick 572,052 92 1,422
Juan Pablo Montoya '@jpmontoya 510,049 60 4,452
Brad Keselowski '@keselowski 257,006 84 6,091
Jimmie Johnson '@jimmiejohnson 201,027 134 4,593
Kevin Harvick '@kevinharvick 188,937 94 5,797
Jeff Gordon '@jeffgordon 186,359 111 9,558
Kasey Kahne '@kaseykahne 164,237 96 2,395
Kyle Busch '@kylebusch 157,947 58 4,897
Michael Waltrip '@mw55 150,261 194 13,375
Denny Hamlin '@dennyhamlin 133,891 161 1,894
Trevor Bayne '@trevorbayne 118,438 85 997
Dale Earnhardt Jr. '@dalejr 111,655 0 0
Kenny Wallace '@kenny_wallace 95,902 182 23,685
Elliott Sadler '@elliott_sadler 91,918 187 4,566
Matt Kenseth '@mattkenseth 90,814 49 1,358
Jamie McMurray '@jamiemcmurray 88,104 33 765
Tony Stewart '@tonystewart 87,795 0 1
Ryan Newman '@ryannewman39 86,457 148 3,253
Martin Truex Jr. '@martintruexjr56 70,164 48 1,261
Greg Biffle '@gregbiffle 67,771 37 950
Joey Logano '@jlogano 67,437 136 1,631
Mark Martin '@55markmartin 63,232 90 1,258
Bobby Labonte '@bobby_labonte 58,544 107 2,221
A J Allmendinger '@ajdinger 54,802 2 7,203
Brian Vickers '@brianlvickers 52,196 155 2,555
Jeff Burton '@jeffburton 49,467 172 9,239
Robby Gordon '@robbygordon 43,060 377 2,263
David Ragan '@david_ragan 40,479 95 976
Regan Smith '@regan_smith_ 39,239 82 2,121
Austin Dillon '@austindillon 39,066 540 3,539
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. '@stenhousejr 33,640 72 2,772
Carl Edwards '@carl_edwards_ 32,131 0 1,131
Marcos Ambrose '@marcosambrose 27,522 109 4,589
Aric Almirola '@aric_almirola 26,043 49 2,160
David Reutimann '@davidreutimann 23,603 18 556
Michael McDowell '@mc_driver 20,817 201 3,697
Landon Cassill '@landoncassill 19,770 151 2,466
J.J. Yeley '@jjyeley1 15,010 99 2,844
Brendan Gaughan '@brendan62 14,225 88 5,350
Joe Nemechek '@frontrowjoe87 13,362 13,465 981
Ken Schrader '@kenschrader 13,128 12 697
Josh Wise '@joshwise 8,069 83 1,013
Mike Bliss '@mikebliss36 3,847 52 41
Casey Mears '@caseymears13 691 6 5

Race winner Brad Keselowski, Penske Racing Dodge
Race winner Brad Keselowski, Penske Racing Dodge

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

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