What do Kate Upton, Dale Jr., Danica Patrick and Kanye West have in common?

By foxsports
Published

Ever wonder how NASCAR drivers stack up in terms of popularity against other athletes?

Well, according to something called the Celebrity DBI powered by Repucom, an international index that evaluates celebrities, just five NASCAR drivers are among the top 100 most popular. The index, which was provided to and published by Sports Business Daily, measures eight attributes: awareness, appeal, aspiration, breakthrough, endorsement, influence, trendsetter and trust.

So who made the list?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. ranked No. 10 with a level of popularity equivalent to Kanye West, Nick Jonas and Eli Manning.

Next up in 11th was Danica Patrick, who was compared in popularity to Kate Upton, James Franco and Bono.

Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson ranked 33rd, which equated to David Ortiz, Rob Gronkowski, and Keith Olbermann, an eclectic trio, for sure.

Coming in at 44th was Tony Stewart, who was likened to Kevin Garnett, Jason Sudeikis and Larry Fitzgerald.

The final driver to make the top 100 athlete list might surprise some people: Kurt Busch was 92nd, with a level of popularity that ranked him at a level comparable to Von Miller, Jason Aldean and Brooklyn Decker.