Chase Elliott knows he’s not guaranteed of winning the National Motorsports Press Association’s Most Popular Driver award, but the Hendrick Motorsports competitor who has been honored with it for eight-consecutive years wants his name removed from the ballot this year and is asking those who normally support him to vote for Kyle Busch in 2026.
“It had been brought up a couple weeks ago and I truly hadn’t really put a ton of thought into it,” the 30-year-old Elliott said. “That’s not me saying, ‘Oh, it’s mine and I need to remove myself for that reason.’ I just think Kyle is a guy that really deserves an award like that.
“I think he’s a guy that has had a lot of fans throughout the course of his career. I know the boos and it was fun, and all those things, but (he) had a lot of supporters, a lot of really passionate fans. I just feel like he deserves to win the award, truthfully.”
The 41-year-old Busch died unexpectedly of severe bacterial pneumonia that progressed into sepsis a day before Charlotte Motor Speedway’s race weekend.
Elliott asking his fans to vote for Busch follows a path that his father established in 2001 after Dale Earnhardt died in that year’s Daytona 500. Prior to 2001, Bill Elliott had won the NMPA Most Popular Driver award for 10 consecutive years. The elder Elliott’s fans honored his request, and Earnhardt won the NMPA Most Popular Driver award in 2001. It’s the only NMPA award that’s determined by the fans.
“Obviously, I don’t know what was going to happen with that this year, but I just wanted to throw my support (to him),” Elliott said about Busch.
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.