Hendrick Motorsports superstar Chase Elliott ended up winning the NMPA Most Popular Driver Award once again in 2024. It is his seventh consecutive time winning the title and continues his status as the most loved driver on the Cup Series field.
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A darker perspective prevails on the flip side of the coin. There are believers in the conspiracy that NASCAR is rigged in favor of two family names.
Either an Elliott or an Earnhardt has won the Most Popular Driver Award over the last 34 years. Before Chase, it was his father Bill who dominated this category year on year.
The elder Elliott won the award sixteen times. For the Earnhardts, it was Dale Earnhardt Sr. first and then his son Dale Jr., who won it 15 times. For the title to be shared among these four names definitely brings forward some questions.
These questions are further amplified by another astounding fact. The current system by which the winner is decided by fan vote came into play only in 1984. Before then, the most popular driver was decided by votes made by NASCAR members. Darrell Waltrip is the only person to get his name on the honor (1989) since fans began voting for their favorite drivers.
Is the promotion influencing the voting system to get the award in the hands of an Elliott? That’s what some believe. One fan wrote in response to a post by NASCAR on NBC that celebrated the dominance of the two families, “Wow it’s almost like people just vote blindly for a name huh.” If Elliott’s streak was to be broken sometime it was after this season.
He did not have the best of campaigns and after the 2023 debacle, his popularity is at an all-time low. It did come as a surprise that fans still voted him as the most popular driver of them all. Another fan said, “That tells me its bullshit.” It was all the confirmation he needed to understand that the award did not go to the right person. The backlash did not end there.
One follower expressed that Dale Jr. and Chase Elliott won the award only because of their surnames and not because of their hard work. They said, “Amazing that they literally are only popular because of their dads lol”
This point can have several arguments. Another delivered a straight and simple verdict, “Rigged.” A concrete conclusion cannot be drawn at this time about this.
For now, Elliott is the NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver of the Year. But the fandom has made it clear that it wouldn’t mean the end of the world if a different driver were to win it.
