Since 1983, the National Motorsports Press Association has presented the fan voted Most Popular Driver Award. The first award was presented in 1949 to Curtis Turner.
Voting for the 2022 Most Popular Driver begins November 8 and runs through the end of the month at noon. Fans may cast their votes once a day in each series – the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck Series. Fans may cast votes at nascar.com/mostpopulardriver.
In order to be eligible, a driver must have declared for the series and be eligible for the championship contention in that series.
Since the first Most Popular Driver Award was first presented 72 years ago, a total of 20 drivers have earned the award with Bill Elliott leading the list with 16; Dale Earnhardt Jr is second with 15 in a row. Once Junior retired, Chase Elliott took over winning the award and has won the last four in a row. Richard Petty has won the award seven times.
The 20 Most Popular Driver Award winners are:
Chase Elliott
Dale Earnhardt Jr
Darrell Waltrip
Bobby Allison
David Pearson
Richard Petty
Bobby Isaac
Cale Yarborough
Darel Dieringer
Fred Lorenzen
Joe Weatherly
Rex White
Jack Smith
Glen Wood
Fireball Roberts
Curtis Turner
Tim Flock
Lee Petty
This year’s Cup Series drivers eligible for the Most Popular Driver Award:
Aric Almirola
Christopher Bell
Josh Bilicki
Ryan Blaney
Alex Bowman
Chase Briscoe
Chris Buescher
Harrison Burton
Kurt Busch
Kyle Busch
William Byron
Ross Chastain
Austin Cindric
Cole Custer
Austin Dillon
Ty Dillon
Chase Elliott
Todd Gilliland
Noah Gragson
Justin Haley
Denny Hamlin
Kevin Harvick
Daniel Hemric
Erik Jones
Brad Keselowski
Corey LaJoie
Kyle Larson
Joey Logano
Michael McDowell
BJ McLeod
Tyler Reddick
Garrett Smithley
Ricky Stenhouse Jr
Daniel Suarez
Martin Truex Jr
Bubba Wallace
Cody Ware