There is no NASCAR Cup Series race in Oklahoma just as there are no legal Oklahoma sports betting options available. Still, the state will sit up and take notice when the NASCAR season begins this Sunday with the Daytona 500.
That made us wonder: Which NASCAR Cup Series drivers are folks searching for the most? And how does that work out on a state-by-state basis? To find out, BetOklahoma.com turned to Google Trends to find out how often, from Feb. 7, 2023 to Feb. 7, 2024, people searched for the term “NASCAR” in each state. We used that information to name the most searched-for driver, or most popular NASCAR driver by that metric, in each of the 50 states. Any driver who is in the Cup Series either full-time or part-time was included. Turn to BetOklahoma.com for updates on the best Oklahoma sportsbook promo codes – if and when they become available.
NASCAR Drivers Winning Most States
Jimmie Johnson Still The Man In Oklahoma
Though he has not driven a full-time NASCAR Cup schedule in a few years, seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson was the most-searched driver in Oklahoma. Johnson left NASCAR to try his hand at IndyCar in the 2021-22 seasons, then returned for a part-time ride (and partial team ownership) with Richard Petty’s Cup team, which was rebranded Legacy Motor Club with Johnson’s arrival. Johnson ran only three Cup races in 2023 but still came out on top for NASCAR driver searches in Alaska, Wisconsin and New Jersey as well as Oklahoma.
His search volume might have gotten a boost when he was inducted in to the NASCAR Hall of Fame last month, along with his long-time crew chief, Chad Knaus, and former driver Donnie Allison.
Christopher Bell is from Norman, Oklahoma, and is the biggest presence in the series for a Sooner State native in quite some time. In neighboring Kansas, DraftKings Sportsbook has Bell at +2200 odds to win the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway (green flag 1:30 p.m. Central). Johnson has won the 500 twice but, again, because he is a part-time driver with a team that hasn’t been competitive in many years, he has +7000 odds at DraftKings to win on Sunday.
Oklahoma has only ever hosted one race at the top level of stock car racing and that was in 1956. But Bell and Kyle Larson are among the handful of NASCAR drivers who have appeared and won at the Chili Bowl Nationals sprint car races in Tulsa. Larson and Chase Elliott were the most-searched NASCAR drivers in eight states each, tied for the most in our research.
Perhaps Bell will be the most-searched driver in Oklahoma next year. And perhaps Oklahoma will make some progress toward making Oklahoma sports betting apps legal in a state where casinos are big business already.
