NASCAR made headlines this past weekend as drivers Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney engaged in a fight following the Bass Pro Shops Bristol Night Race.
The incident even drew media coverage beyond typical NASCAR and sports outlets. The attention for the two drivers seemed especially noteworthy because NASCAR drivers don’t enjoy the same crossover appeal in mainstream America that they did a decade or two decades ago. Sports Poll™ has asked NASCAR fans about their favorite drivers for more than 25 years. The biggest change over this time is the rise of fans who have no favorite driver.
In 2009, 31% of fans didn’t have a favorite driver. Today, that number sits at 64%.
The most popular drivers from the early 2000s all walked away between 2015-2020, and younger drivers haven’t resonated in the same way. To put it in perspective, NASCAR consistently had four drivers (Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Tony Stewart) who were all more popular than the sport’s favorite driver today (Kyle Larson).
The decline is important because connecting with a favorite driver is one of the primary reasons fans engage.
It’s also a critical building block for attracting new fans. If more people can see drivers’ personalities (even in a post-race fight), it could help reverse the trend. After all, it was a fight between Cale Yarborough and the Allison brothers in 1979 that helped spark the sport’s growth nationally.
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Sports Poll by SSRS™ is conducted continuously throughout the year and includes a nationally representative sample of more than 24,000 Americans each year.
