The Social Media Impact of the 97th Indianapolis 500

Social media has a presence in society today and it cannot be ignored. Prior to last year's Indianapolis 500 I took a look at the Twitter accounts of the 33 drivers competing in the race and decided to take a look at if winning the race would profoundly increase the amount of followers and if it did, how large would the increase be? It's been nearly a year since Dario Franchitti won his third Indianapolis 500 and since that day, Dario Franchitti has seen an increase in Twitter followers from 61,372 to 95,190. Now a lot has happened since the last Indianapolis 500 and hopefully this year I will be able to see post a report a week after the race.

A few things about Twitter: 1. It seems really hard for someone NOT to gain followers. You have to do something really wrong to lose followers. So while you'll see every driver from 2012 gained followers, it should be taken with a grain of salt.
2. Gaining Twitter followers doesn't dictate who is the best or who is a good or bad person. As a diehard fan, it doesn't matter who wins the Indianapolis 500 or how many Twitter followers they have. Whoever wins the race deserves the recognition as a winner, the bottle of milk and their face of the BorgWarner Trophy.
3. However, if the winner of this year's Indianapolis 500 sees a huge jump in followers, it may be a sign people a.) are watching the race. b.) have interest in a driver or drivers and c.) could be interested enough to watch Belle Isle the following week and hopefully keep them interested through Texas.

Here is the list of drivers and the change in Twitter followers from prior to last year's Indianapolis 500 (all current Twitter follower totals are from the night of May 20th):
1. Ed Carpenter- 15,534 (+4948 from 10,586 in 2012)
2. Carlos Muñoz- 2,194 (2013 rookie)
3. Marco Andretti- 56,853 (+12362 from 44,491 in 2012)
4. EJ Viso- 56,114 (+37293 from 18,821 in 2012)
5. AJ Allmendinger- 105,507 (2013 rookie)
6. Will Power- 38,762 (+10,753 from 28,009 in 2012)
7. Ryan Hunter-Reay- 32,041 (+9911 from 22,130 in 2012)
8. Hello Castroneves- 83,914 (+21704 from 62,210 in 2012)
9. James Hinchcliffe- 32,896 (+15033 from 17,863 in 2012)
10. JR Hildebrand- 18,658 (+5412 from 13,237 in 2012)
11. Alex Tagliani- 71,848 (+12070 from 59,778 in 2012)
12. Tony Kanaan- 595,437 (+90610 from 504,827 in 2012)
13. Oriol Serviá- 16,348 (+4622 from 11,715 in 2012)
14. Justin Wilson- 23,996 (+6035 from 17,961 in 2012)
15. Sébastien Bourdais- 6,240 (Did not have a Twitter account until after Indianapolis 2012)
16. Scott Dixon- 47,568 (+23606 from 23,962 in 2012)
17. Dario Franchitti- 95,190 (+33818 from 61,372 in 2012)
18. Takuma Sato- 23,682 (+11138 from 12,544 in 2012)
19. Charlie Kimball- 10,020 (+3975 from 6,045 in 2012. This information is from using @charliekimball. @racewithinsulin, Kimball's other Twitter account currently has 6,698 followers.)
20. James Jakes- 8,840 (+5327 from 3,513 in 2012)
21. Simon Pagenaud- 11,638 (+5824 from 5,814 in 2012)
22. Townsend Bell- 36,670 (+31950 from 4,720 in 2012)
23. Ryan Briscoe- 30,565 (+6877 from 23,688 in 2012)
24. Simona de Silvestro- 24,716 (+7203 from 17,513 in 2012)
25. Josef Newgarden- 10,823 (+6115 from 4,708 in 2012)
26. Graham Rahal- 46,180 (+19648 from 26,532 in 2012)
27. Sebastián Saavedra- 12,059 (+4356 from 7,703 in 2012)
28. Tristan Vautier- 2,245 (2013 rookie)
29. Ana Beatriz- 36,926 (+6213 from 30,713 in 2012)
30. Pippa Mann- 13,894 (did not race in 2012)
31. Conor Daly- 11,376 (2013 rookie)
32. Buddy Lazier- 151 (Not on Twitter. Using Lazier Racing Partners Twitter account)
33. Katherine Legge- 11,612 (+4597 from 7,015 in 2012)

Some drivers have good following while others may see a giant boost if they were to win this Sunday. Overall, if one driver sees a large increase it could be a big boost for IndyCar as a whole.