In the high-octane world of NASCAR, the promise of a million-dollar payday at Victory Lane has always driven competition on Sundays. Such paydays are rare and special events like the Daytona 500 or the All-Star race provide the drivers to earn a bag full of cash. However, this year, there’s been a shift, and NASCAR is pushing the drivers to promote the sport and sparking some healthy competition.
Now, the sanctioning body is looking to turbocharge it’s off-track marketing as well. This season, NASCAR rolled out the Driver Ambassador Program (DAP), a new initiative that rewards drivers for boosting the sport’s visibility through media interviews, social media engagement, and in-person appearances. So, drivers will earn extra dollars apart from their paycheck or racing purse. And this competition is structured and based on points.
Points accrue via a dedicated INFLCR app, and payouts occur twice a year: $1 million for the top performer each term, down to $7,500 for the last-place ambassador. It’s a straightforward incentive: drive the conversation, and your bank account grows. And going by the initial reports, it looks like Joey Logano from Team Penske is leading the charts.
Joey Logano makes up for his All-Star loss
In a Twitter post by Adam Stern, it was shared that the inaugural DAP term wrapped on June 15, and Team Penske’s Joey Logano emerged atop the leaderboard, earning a $1 million reward for his promotional efforts. Logano’s success wasn’t accidental. He led the program in media hits, sponsor activations, and brand-aligned events, translating his off-track hustle into real dollars. NASCAR President Steve Phelps acknowledged the program’s success, stating that it has “opened up several avenues for collaborative growth.”
.@JoeyLogano took the checkered flag in the first term of @NASCAR’s new Driver Ambassador Program, finishing in the top spot in the system designed to raise the promotional level of the sport, according to people familiar with the scoring. https://t.co/ELfhle7J56
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) June 25, 2025
Indeed, this program helped in partnerships including Xfinity with 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick, Consumer Cellular with RFK Racing driver Brad Keselowski, and Chili’s with Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet. Even fast-food giant Chipotle has entered the NASCAR scene with an endorsement deal. The notion of bringing more eyes to the sport wasn’t just reserved for the fans but for potential sponsors and investors as well.
Behind Logano, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson claimed second place, while reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney rounded out the top three. Blaney’s steady ambassadorship, he’s frequently appeared on national broadcasts and led a high-profile Chipotle campaign in May, underscored the importance of consistency. “A championship doesn’t just come from Sunday laps,” Blaney told Athlon Sports. “It comes from building the sport’s profile every day, whether in interviews or community events.”
NASCAR launched the DAP alongside a new $1.1 billion, seven-year media-rights cycle, directing a slice of that revenue to fuel ambassadorship. The intent is twofold: increase overall media exposure and encourage drivers to leverage their personalities for broader appeal. Early indicators suggest the program is working.
Ripples beyond the payout
Not everyone’s sold on the DAP idea, though. Skeptics like former NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield have raised concerns about how organizations manage their messaging, though his past disputes with NASCAR centered on very different issues. Behind the scenes, some team executives also quietly worry that shifting marketing resources into a centralized league fund might complicate existing driver-sponsor relationships, nervous that it could step on the toes of deals already in place.
Denny Hamlin, in particular, wasn’t sold on the system that graded the driver and distributed points. “Uh, I’m retired… Just so you know, you get full credit for coming here. I get four points in total. It’s bad.” Interestingly, he even predicted who might be leading the charts and gain maximum points. “Logano gets all his points though for his stuff every week, right? If you have 100,000 listeners, apparently, it doesn’t do much for the sport each and every week.”
Hamlin’s argument isn’t vague; he might not be the most polished or buttoned-up driver in the garage, but he does have active listeners who tune into his show. Well, the other element that might’ve worked against him was his team, 23XI Racing’s legal troubles with NASCAR. Far from the tidy and clean NASCAR driver image, perhaps this is the reason he didn’t even land in the top 10 rankings.
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