The 2024 NASCAR Cup season, though not without its controversies, wrapped up at Phoenix. Done with that NASCAR drivers might be waiting for the NASCAR Awards banquet. The celebration honors the year’s best drivers from the Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman Truck Series.
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Last year, the awards ceremony, which coincided with NASCAR’s 75th anniversary, made a splash at the Music City Center in Nashville on November 30th.
This time, however, the celebrations are shifted to a new venue — Charlotte, North Carolina, slated for Friday, November 22, at the Charlotte Convention Center. Meanwhile, the broadcast of the event is scheduled for Sunday, November 24, at 3 p.m. ET on the local CW station.
In addition to the main event, NASCAR will also celebrate the NASCAR Regional Series, including the ARCA Menards, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, and so on.
Additionally, it’ll also commemorate the NASCAR International Series, which features the NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race, NASCAR Canada Series, NASCAR Mexico Series, and NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.
The celebration will take place on November 21, 2024, and will be the second consecutive year of the event.
Previously, the NASCAR awards banquet was a private celebration that happened in the basement of the Plaza Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida. The event was reserved for the top ten Cup Series drivers and teams. Separate awards ceremonies for the Xfinity and Truck Series were held in Miami, timed with the season-ending races at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
However, the tradition evolved, and by 2021, the separate Charlotte banquet was discontinued. Since then, champions from all NASCAR series have been honored together at a unified Cup Series awards banquet in Nashville.
Who were the big winners last year?
In 2023, Ryan Blaney, Cole Custer, and Ben Rhodes took center stage at the awards ceremony for their Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman Truck Championship wins, respectively. Justin Allgaier and Hailie Deegan were crowned 2023 Most Popular Drivers in the NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series, respectively.
Denny Hamlin, who had his sights set on the NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver Award, could not dethrone Chase Elliott and walked away with the Personality of the Year Award, thanks to the fresh views and inside details offered through his new podcast. The Hendrick Motorsports driver secured the Most Popular Driver Award in the Cup Series for the sixth consecutive year.
Christopher Bell won the 2023 Busch Light Pole Award with a career-high 6 pole positions. In the Craftsman Truck Series, Carson Hocevar was named driver of the year, with John Hunter Nemechek taking the same honor in the Xfinity Series. After a near miss at last year’s finale in Phoenix, Kyle Larson was recognized as the driver of the year.
The Rookie of the Year award went to Ty Gibbs, and his teammate Martin Truex Jr. earned accolades as the “Most Unpredictable” Driver.
