Danica's Daytona 500 performance Twitter-iffic

Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

During a Speedweeks in which she twice made NASCAR history, Danica Patrick's performance triggered some unprecedented reverberations in social media, too.

In research data provided exclusively to USA TODAY Sports, Repucom, a global company with an office in Charlotte, found that Patrick had 971 million impressions on Twitter in the eight days spanning when she became the first woman to capture a Sprint Cup pole position to the first to lead the Daytona 500.

By comparison, the 2012 Daytona 500 pole winner, Carl Edwards, had 15 million impressions during the same timeframe last year, and Patrick had 19 million in the two months entering her Daytona 500 debut last season. With an advanced algorithm that has a 3% margin of error, impressions are calculated through tweets, retweets and replies about a topic and the number of followers associated with the accounts.

"It's staggering," Repucom vice president Peter Laatz told USA TODAY Sports. "That's a really good thing for the sport, and it's great for her and great for her sponsors. We thought last year was a big deal until we looked at the numbers from this year."

Repucom, which measures the impact and valuation of sponsorships across several sports and tracks close to 1,700 NASCAR brands, also estimated that primary sponsor Go Daddy received 1,203 seconds of on-screen branding during the Daytona 500 that was equivalent to $2.9 million in media value. During Patrick's last full season in the Izod IndyCar Series in 2011, Go Daddy had 5,637 seconds of screen time but nearly half the media value ($1.5 million) because NASCAR's ratings and reach dwarf rival racing series.

IMG senior vice president Mark Dyer, who works on the team representing Patrick's business interests, told USA TODAY Sports the Daytona 500 (which averaged 16.7 million viewers) was "the biggest TV audience that's watched her race. She's had huge audiences watching her in Super Bowl TV commercials, but as far as her being in contention to win a race, this was by far the biggest audience that's ever seen her do that."

Patrick, who finished eighth after leading five laps, also moved up 29 spots after Daytona in the Davie-Brown Index, which quantifies the brand clout and marketability of more than 3,000 celebrities (including athletes, actors/actresses and musicians). As the highest-ranked NASCAR driver, Patrick (who is 453rd) is on par with George Clooney and Justin Timberlake in endorsement potential and ranks in the top 6% of all celebs in influence.

"Ultimately, it demonstrates the scale of being in Sprint Cup," Laatz said. "That's where she'll make a bigger impact. Awareness has held her back. Weighing IndyCar vs. NASCAR, it's a different conversation with a longer season and more viewership (in NASCAR)."

After her pole position, Patrick was featured by The Today Show, Good Morning America, NPR's Morning Edition and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Dyer said the coverage by nontraditional NASCAR media has been a "great assist in conversations with sponsors on a range of opportunities." Though Patrick's No. 10 Chevrolet has full-season funding from Go Daddy, she has room for more personal endorsement deals (such as last year's signing with Coke Zero), and Dyer said the health and beauty category is a possibility.

Stewart-Haas Racing also has openings with Patrick for a few Sprint Cup races (that Go Daddy would be willing to relinquish), and she still would like to add a few Nationwide races this year if sponsorship is obtained.

"We're in an enviable position vs. most of the teams in the garage," Dyer said. "We don't take that for granted. Certainly, Daytona didn't hurt."

Laatz said it still might be difficult finding sponsors that fit because of the massive exposure for Go Daddy.

"It could be a blessing and a curse," he said. "By the campaign's admission, she's the Go Daddy girl. I think it's going to be difficult for another brand. It'd have to be the right opportunity or another category altogether. To think you can draft off Go Daddy numbers is never going to happen."

Follow Nate Ryan on Twitter @nateryan