Jimmie Johnson may have won his third consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship, but it’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. who’s won the hearts of NASCAR race fans according to the Motorsports DBI (MDBI), an index created by sports marketing agency Millsport. Millsport is part of Omnicom’s The Marketing Arm.
In a survey of avid NASCAR fans, Earnhardt Jr. scored the highest across each of the index’s nine attributes, including trust, appeal, influence, and passion. Johnson ranked fifth. “There are a lot of reasons to like Junior,” said Ken Cohn, a vice president in Millsport’s Charlotte, N.C., office. “Clearly, he’s inherited a strong percentage of fans who supported his father, a legend in the sport who really transcended racing emotionally. But Junior has built his own fan base that genuinely appreciates his style, personality, character, and so forth.”

For the first time, the updated Motorsports DBI also includes data on the top drivers from the NHRA and IndyCar racing circuits. Fans rate Castroneves, Kanaan, Danica Patrick, Dario Franchitti, and Scott Dixon the highest among IndyCar drivers, though Castroneves and Kanaan posted the strongest scores in nearly every attribute, including appeal and trust. According to the index, fans consider Patrick to be a trendsetter and solid endorser. Among NHRA drivers, John and Ashley Force ranked in the top two spots. www.millsport.com