The Twitter master

AVONDALE, AZ - FEBRUARY 28: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 National Guard Chevrolet, walks on pit road prior to qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series The Profit on CNBC 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on February 28, 2014 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
AVONDALE, AZ - FEBRUARY 28:  Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 National Guard Chevrolet, walks on pit road prior to qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series The Profit on CNBC 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on February 28, 2014 in Avondale, Arizona.  (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
AVONDALE, AZ – FEBRUARY 28: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 National Guard Chevrolet, walks on pit road prior to qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series The Profit on CNBC 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on February 28, 2014 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

AVONDALE, Ariz.— Dale Earnhardt Jr. is gaining on Danica Patrick and Jimmie Johnson—rapidly.

Less than a week after he won the Daytona 500 and established his presence on Twitter, Earnhardt has 527,000 followers, a little more than half the 1.02 million who follow Patrick.

And you can count Hendrick Motorsports teammate Johnson, who has 552,000 followers of his own, among those who actively encouraged NASCAR’s most popular driver to start tweeting.

“I, among many others, have been pushing him,” Johnson told reporters before NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Phoenix. “There have been a lot of people involved on social media—even people from Twitter—who have put pressure on him and come to me to put pressure on him over the years.

“It just wasn’t something he was interested in.”

That changed dramatically after the 500. Earnhardt has been tweeting regularly, including a number of “Throwback Thursday” postings that feature archival photos of his late father, Dale Earnhardt Sr.

“As sharp as he is, and as much time as he spends in the digital world, I knew that, when he got involved, he would love it, and it would work very well for him,” Johnson said. “He didn’t enter as a rookie on Twitter, in my opinion. He’s off to a pretty strong start.”

And don’t expect Earnhardt to stop tweeting or to run out of throwback photos any time soon.

“I’ve got a photo stream on my phone that is like 500 old pictures of my Dad and (grandfather) Ralph (Earnhardt) and Jimmy Means,” Earnhardt said. “It’s just a photo stream that I just collect. … photos that I find.

“There are a ton of people on that, but I got throw back Thursday for years. I’m in good shape there.  That’s going to be fun.”

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.