Is Chase Elliott the Tiger Woods of NASCAR?

At this point. Chase Elliott and NASCAR are synonymous. Throughout his career in the world of stock car racing, the 28-year-old Hendrick driver has amassed fame like none other. Some even go as far as calling him NASCAR’s Tiger Woods.

Indeed, we are talking viewership here.  NASCAR found a steady fall in its viewership earlier this year when Chase Elliott broke his tibia in a snowboarding accident. This articulates the impact that Elliott has on the sport.

The number of viewers dropped by 12.2% in Las Vegas, 15.1% in Phoenix, 14.5% in Atlanta, 16.1% in Austin, 41.8% at Richmond, and 13.9% in Bristol compared to last year’s. No wonder he has been winning the Most Popular Driver award for the last 6 years straight.

“It impacts our TV ratings, I know that for sure,” said Stewart-Haas Racing legend Kevin Harvick of Elliott’s absence. “There are more people who want to watch when Chase Elliott is here. And I think we’re all thankful he’s back.”

“Whether you like somebody, don’t like somebody, get along with somebody or don’t, everybody has a piece of the puzzle that they fall into. And Chase, for us, is our biggest star and he’s the guy who needs to be here every week for it all to make sense currently,” he added.

NASCAR has always gone to great lengths to promote Chase Elliott as the front face of the sport. Even his teammate Alex Bowman missed races this year owing to a broken vertebra from a sprint car race. But he didn’t get to feature in a commercial when he came back. Chase Elliott did.

“Obviously he’s the most popular driver. I mean you didn’t see me get a TV commercial when I came back,” said the driver of the #48 Chevy Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. hands over the torch to Chase Elliott

There was a time when Dale Earnhardt Jr. sat gloriously on the seat of the Most Popular Driver of NASCAR. And he did it for 15 consecutive years, a record second to only Chase Elliott’s legendary father, Bill Elliott.

After Junior won the 2014 Daytona 500, his fame just shot up the sky. Veteran crew chief Larry McReynolds said in one of his articles, “Our sport as a whole also benefits from Dale Jr. winning the Daytona 500 Sunday.”

“You can’t pick up a newspaper, turn on the internet, the radio or TV without hearing something about this win. Heck, I even heard them talking about it on the Weather Channel of all places. That’s how monumental this win was for our sport,” he concluded.