By admin 
Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants NASCAR to push its swear jar contest even further. Responding to news of the campaign’s early success, the NASCAR Hall of Famer suggested attaching a driver’s name to each tracked word, effectively creating a standings battle for who curses the most on track.
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“Feel like we need to take this [to] the next step and [track] a [driver’s] name to each word… driver who leads in most F bombs and so forth,” Earnhardt said on X in response to a report from Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern, who revealed that NASCAR’s in-app “Swear Word Leaderboard” generated 974 million earned media impressions in just the first week of the Chase for the Cup.
The idea carries some irony coming from Earnhardt specifically. NASCAR penalized him for using profanity in a live interview after his October 2004 win at Talladega Superspeedway, docking him points as he compared the victory to his father’s record at the track. “It don’t mean s–t right now. Daddy’s won here 10 times,” Dale Jr. said during his live post-race TV interview in Victory Lane with NBC. Two decades later, the sanctioning body is monetizing the exact behavior it once fined him for.
NASCAR’s Swear Word Leaderboard Explained
The leaderboard tracks censored profanity picked up from drivers and crew over race weekends, with a running dollar total attached to each word. As of the tracker’s latest update (Sept. 14), the total sat at $2,340, with “f-ck” leading the count at 235 instances, followed by “s–t” at 45 and “h-ll” at 24. Further down the board, less common entries like “g-dd-mn” and “m-therf–ker” round out the list.
The campaign launched at Darlington Raceway on September 6, adding five dollars to the prize pot for every curse word picked up over driver radio during the Cup Series’ 10-race Chase for the Cup. NASCAR built the campaign with 72andSunny Los Angeles, letting fans submit weekly predictions on the top swear word and total count for a chance to advance toward the championship-weekend finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where one fan will walk away with the entire pot.
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“While other leagues fine for swearing, NASCAR knows it’s an authentic part of their sport,” said Zach Hilder, chief creative officer at 72andSunny Los Angeles, according to a release from the agency. “This work represents the rebel spirit that’s so core to the NASCAR brand.”
Ryan Blaney was among the drivers most frequently picked up by scanner radio during the campaign’s opening weekend at Darlington, a result that tracks with his reputation for hot-mic moments during tense restarts.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Proposal for the Cup Series Chase Campaign
Earnhardt’s proposal would turn the leaderboard into a per-driver competition, adding a new layer of engagement to a campaign that’s already generating outsized attention relative to its cost. The suggestion also fits a broader trend among motorsport properties leaning into unfiltered moments, rather than sanitizing them, as a way to humanize drivers and drive social engagement.
Whether NASCAR takes Earnhardt up on the idea remains to be seen, but the early results suggest the sanctioning body found a low-cost way to stay in the conversation deep into the Chase for the Cup.
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This story was originally published September 14, 2026 at 4:06 AM.