So… We decided to take a look at our Facebook followers. Hear me out. It doesn’t matter if we post about a new track, improved TV ratings, a driver scoring their first win, etc. There will always be a massive outburst of negativity. This new “follower participation” segment was done without mentioning what we intended to do with it. It was done with a simple post: “Name a NASCAR driver that you cannot stand!” Then, we let it stew for 48 hours and tallied up the results.
For this piece, we took all of the 611 comments on the post and tallied them up. For each comment that mentioned multiple drivers, we used the first name mentioned.
One of our observations of the results was simple: the more successful the driver, the more they were mentioned. Of course, others were mentioned for other reasons, but one driver was VASTLY mentioned over the rest. Some comments failed to mention a driver, and some were actually very positive, refusing to name a driver. We counted 265 tallies, and here are the results.
The First 5
- 10. Martin Truex Jr.: 3 tallies (What did he ever do to you guys??)
- 9. Ross Chastain & Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: 4 tallies
- 8. Austin Hill: 6 tallies
- 7. Ty Gibbs: 9 tallies
- 6. Austin Dillon: 14 tallies
Top 5 Most Disliked Drivers
- 5. Bubba Wallace: 16 tallies (Honestly surprised he had so few with as much hate as he gets online)
- 4. Chase Elliott & Kyle Busch (Tie): 18 tallies
- 3. Kyle Larson: 21 tallies
- 2. Joey Logano: 25 tallies
- 1. Denny Hamlin: 114 tallies
Now, let’s take a look at these Top 5 drivers and their careers. Combined, they have won six NASCAR Cup Series championships and four Daytona 500 victories. The Top 5 have 202 Cup Series victories and a massive 455 NASCAR National Series victories. That’s an awful lot of success.
Although multiple other drivers were mentioned once, only three others had multiple mentions at two: Ryan Blaney, Corey LaJoie, and Brad Keselowski.
Image: Patrick Vallely
