Chase Elliott named NASCAR’s most popular driver for 7th straight season

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Chase Elliott was named NASCAR’s most popular driver for the seventh consecutive year at the sport’s season-ending awards ceremony Friday night.

The only major NASCAR award determined solely by the vote of fans, Elliott earned 266,363 votes to beat out Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson and Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, per results released by the National Motorsports Press Association.

The Elliotts are no stranger to the award.

Chase’s father Bill Elliott, nicknamed “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville,” was named NASCAR’s most popular driver a record 16 times before removing his name from the ballot.

“I don’t think it ever gets old,” Chase Elliott told The Associated Press. “I’m thankful for all of the folks around the country that pull for me and my team and genuinely want to see us do well. That to me is the part that doesn’t get old is whether you’re in Darlington, South Carolina or Talladega or somewhere out in California, it’s just crazy to me that we have been in a fortunate to be in the situation to have the type of support that we have. I don’t take that for granted.”

Blaney joked that he doesn’t see anyone else winning the award until Elliott decides to retire.

“Obviously he has a great fanbase that he has built on his own and fans who loved watching Bill as well,” Blaney said. “I don’t know what it would take to beat him.”

Blaney joked that he will be really excited to see who takes over once Elliott retires.

“That will be a mystery,” Blaney said. “Someday I will have to peak my head back in the door and say, ‘Who won most popular driver?’ I will probably be retired by then, too. So I don’t know (what it would take to beat him). It would be tough to knock him off of that spot. He has a lot of people who really love him.”

Tyler Reddick isn’t sure Elliott will ever lose, either.

“When you’re at the racetrack, you think it has a chance to change,” Reddick said. “I think if anyone is ever going to have a shot at it it’s Ryan or Kyle. But it always seems like it is Chase’s award to lose.”

NASCAR fans are certainly loyal to their drivers.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. was awarded the most popular driver in 2001, the year he was killed in the season-opening Daytona 500. Dale Earnhardt Jr. then won most popular driver the next 15 years, meaning an Elliott or Earnhardt has won NASCAR’s most popular driver for 34 consecutive years.

Elliott said the award is a reminder of what his family accomplished well before he arrived on the NASCAR scene.

“You always want to try to carry your family name in the proper manner or at least in the manner that they would expect,” Elliott said. “I have always tried to do that and I hope I have done that successfully in my time, but for sure it is an extension of a lot of hard work from my dad and his brothers and my grandfather. It was a huge team effort and a huge family effort to have the careers that they had which led to me being here and having the opportunity to carry that forward.”

The awards ceremony took place in NASCAR’s hub in Charlotte for the first time, a dramatic change from previous destination host cities like Las Vegas, New York and Nashville, Tennessee.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing