Voting for the 2023 National Motorsports Press Association ‘Most Popular Driver’ award has officially been opened, as of 12:00 PM ET on Tuesday, November 7th.
Fans will be eligible to start casting votes for their favorite driver – with a maximum of one driver selected once a day – on Tuesday, via either NASCAR.com/MostPopularDriver or the NASCAR Mobile App.
The selection process for the award will only be open for a 22-day period, which will leave voting to close on Thursday, November 29 at 12:00 PM ET. As is traditional, the award will be announced as part of Champion’s Week festivities on November 30.
In the NASCAR Cup Series, Chase Elliott, the full-time driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports is the defending winner of the award, collecting his fifth consecutive Most Popular Driver award at last year’s season-ending banquet.
Bill Elliott, Chase’s father, has a record-holding 16 Most Popular Driver victories, including a 10-year streak of victories between the years 1991 and 2000.
Other multi-time winners of the fan-selected award include Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (15), Richard Petty (10), Bobby Allison (7), Lee Petty (3), Darrell Waltrip (2), Curtis Turner (2), and Fred Lorenzon (2).
In addition to the Most Popular Driver award for the NASCAR Cup Series, both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will also announce a fan-selected recipient of the award as part of post-season celebrations on November 30.
Noah Gragson is the defending winner of the award in the Xfinity Series but will be unable to defend his title. Meanwhile, in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Hailie Deegan will look to claim the award for a third straight season, before moving on to the Xfinity Series in 2024.
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