You don’t have to be a racing fan to know who NASCAR’s most popular driver is in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Anyone with a working knowledge of who the drivers are will tell you that Chase Elliott is far and away the favorite to win the Most Popular Driver award at season’s end. Elliott has been the perennial fan favorite since 2018, including a tumultuous 2023 season that saw him miss six races with an injury, miss one more race due to suspension, miss the playoffs and go winless.
Elliott’s reign is the latest in a long line of drivers who have received the award year after year after year. Elliott’s reign began only after previous fan-favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired from full-time competition in 2017. To that point, Earnhardt had won the award for 15 straight seasons between 2003 and 2017.
Before that, Elliott’s father Bill was the golden boy for the award, winning MPD 16 times between 1984 and 2002. Only three times in that span did the elder Elliott not receive the award: 1989 and 1990 (Darrell Waltrip) and 2001. That year, Elliott voluntarily withdrew himself from the ballot to ensure the late Dale Earnhardt would win the award.
The Most Popular Driver has seen little to no change in the last 40 years. When the latest idol arrives in NASCAR, it’s hard for him to fall out of public favor. It’s safe to say that Chase will be the perennial favorite for years to come, likely until he retires.
Or is he?
Last season, fans were left wondering whether or not Elliott would win the award after what can only be described as a season from hell for the No. 9. Missing seven races alone didn’t help his case, but a suspension being the reason for one of those races was the first time there was doubt in Elliott’s Most Popular Driver award. If you add in the fact that Elliott couldn’t win nor point his way into a 16-driver playoff field, it was definitely not a year that one could describe as “most popular.”
Compounding that was the fact that there were several other candidates more than capable of stealing the award from right under Elliott’s nose.
One of those drivers? Kyle Busch. Yes, that Kyle Busch. After leaving Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing in 2022 to join Richard Childress Racing and Chevrolet in 2023, Busch rifled off three wins in the first half of the season and suddenly found himself getting more cheers than boos for perhaps the first time in his career.
Not to mention, Ross Chastain continued to ride the high of the ‘Hail Melon’ well into 2023, and his continued passion for driving and willingness to be aggressive could have earned him a shot at becoming the most popular driver.
However, fans still saw Elliott as the fan favorite and voted him the Most Popular Driver, even after a season he and his Hendrick Motorsports team would like to forget.
Elliott’s performance has seen a measured boost in 2024. Aside from the fact that he hasn’t missed a race this season, he also found victory lane for the first time since 2022 at Texas Motor Speedway.
He’s currently in the thick of the fight for the regular season championship with just four races before the playoffs. He could certainly be a championship favorite, and that ought to reinforce fans that he is the most popular driver.
However, the driver he’s battling for the regular season title might give him Elliott the biggest run for his money that he’s ever had to deal with.
It cannot be overstated how talented Kyle Larson is as a racecar driver. His prowess on the dirt track scene is impressive enough, but we’ve all seen what he can do in NASCAR. A winner in all three premier series, a K&N Pro Series East (now ARCA Menards Series East) champion, and a NASCAR Cup Series title.
Even still, Larson has not been able to eclipse his Hendrick teammate as the most popular driver. However, Larson has been the NASCAR nominee for Best Driver at the ESPY Awards in 2022 and 2023, not Elliott. In fact, Elliott has only represented NASCAR at the ESPYs once, in 2021.
Larson currently leads the points by 10 over Elliott, thanks to his fourth win of the season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before the Olympic break.
The Indianapolis win means a lot to Larson. Not just because the Brickyard 400 is considered a crown jewel and 2024 marked the first race on the oval since 2020, but because of another big reason.
For that, we have to go back to May.
Larson’s attempt at the Indianapolis 500/Coca-Cola 600 double went about as bad as it could go thanks to weather. So bad, in fact, that Larson missed the Coca-Cola 600 completely and had to spend well over a week wondering if NASCAR would grant him a waiver to even let him compete in the playoffs.
However, Larson’s performance in the Indy 500, as well as the entire month of May in the NTT IndyCar Series, took the motorsports world by storm. Larson was fast all month, culminating in a fifth-place starting spot for the Greatest Spectacle in Motorsports. Larson then went on to contend in the top 10 all day in the race before a speeding penalty took him out of contention.
Larson finished 18th, but along the way, he managed to lead four laps in his maiden IndyCar start in the biggest race of the year. That was enough to earn him Indy 500 Rookie of the Race.
After the Double Disaster, Larson’s win in the Cup car at the Brickyard provided some form of redemption for him, especially as he was competing in the papaya-trimmed HendrickCars.com Chevrolet he never got to race in Charlotte.
Coming with that redemption was an insane fan reaction.
I was on site for Frontstretch for Indianapolis weekend, and was sitting on pit road during the final laps. Whenever Larson made one of his daring moves to take spots from drivers, the fans erupted in cheers. When he took the lead, the fans nearly blew the roof off the place (or he would have if there was a roof at Indy).
So you could imagine the fan reaction when he took the checkered flag.
Larson acknowledged in his post-race interview with NBC Sports the love he shares for the Indianapolis fans.
“I love you Indiana fans,” Larson said. “And I know you guys love me too.”
It’s true. Indiana fans love Larson, especially after all he did and accomplished at the track this year. It could get even better next year if Larson decides to attempt ‘The Double’ again.
And that’s why Larson might have a legitimate shot at dethroning Elliott as the sport’s most popular driver.
The Most Popular Driver is a fan-voted award. If you put Elliott and Larson head-to-head with only NASCAR fans voting, one could largely expect Elliott to come out on top yet again.
But Larson has an advantage this season that Elliott doesn’t: IndyCar fans. A previously untapped fan base has been unlocked lots of new potential voters who are only voting for Larson because of what he did at Indianapolis.
Add in the ever-present dirt fans that might jump in and vote this year with the momentum he has, and Larson might be the next Waltrip, spoiling an Elliott’s streak of Most Popular Driver awards.
On top of that, Elliott doesn’t seem to do as much for the sport off the track as Larson does, which can also make a huge impression on fans, too. Larson is a fan favorite in any other series he competes in, and despite focusing most of his efforts on chasing NASCAR titles, it’s a little hard to believe he has yet to be acknowledged as most popular driver.
The cheers for Larson at Indianapolis made Elliott seem like he was just another driver with a few vocal fans. It could be a sign of the tide turning toward Larson, and we’ll have to find out at season’s end if he’s more popular than his teammate.
However, if Elliott is still the most popular driver after 2024, then it’s going to take nothing short of a superhuman season to dethrone ‘Awesome Chase from the Same Place.’
As we return back from the Olympic break, it’s important to remember Larson is the most recent winner at a place where he is universally loved. But if Elliott can continue to hang with him in the points, the battle between Elliott and Larson will be fun to watch –– both on and off the track.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.