For those, who keep expecting some surprise driver to dethrone Chase Elliott as NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver, you’ll have to wait at least one more year for a chance to see it happen. On Friday night at the NASCAR Awards Ceremony, Elliott was named the NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver Award winner for the seventh consecutive season.
RELATED: Justin Allgaier, Rajah Caruth Take Most Popular Driver Honors in Xfinity and Trucks
Elliott, 28, won the award for the first time in 2018, the first season since former perennial Most Popular Driver recipient Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired from NASCAR Cup Series competition, and he hasn’t stopped since.
In 2024, Elliott had a great bounce-back season on the heels of the worst season of his NASCAR Cup Series career last year. After missing six races due to injury, and an additional race due to a suspension, Elliott missed the Playoffs in 2023 after failing to win a race.
This year, not only did Elliott win a race, which he achieved at Texas Motor Speedway, he returned to his consistent self on the racetrack. Elliott racked up 11 top-five finishes, 19 top-10s, and had a very solid 11.7 average finish on his way to a seventh-place finish in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship standings.
Elliott made it into the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs in 2024, and had solid results of fifth, and second at Homestead and Martinsville in that round, races where he led 81 laps and 129 laps respectively. However, a 33rd-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to kick off the round put Elliott in a must-win situation to advance to the Championship 4. While he ultimately missed out on the Championship 4, and a potential second NASCAR Cup Series championship, it was a great season for the driver from Dawsonville, Georgia.
While Elliott has a long way to go if he wants to reach his famous father’s (Bill Elliott) lofty total of 16 Most Popular Driver Awards, with the younger Elliott still under 30 years old, and continuing to have plenty of success on the race track, there is a realistic chance we see him eclipse his father’s all-time total.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits second all-time in Most Popular Driver Awards with 15, which he achieved consecutively from 2003 until his final season in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2017.
