Justin Allgaier was awarded the 2023 NMPA Most Popular Driver Award for the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Allgaier has thus won the Most Popular Driver Award for the fourth time since piloting the No.7 Chevrolet for JR Motorsport for the past five seasons.
The other nominees for the award announced by NASCAR were Josh Berry, Sheldon Creed, Cole Custer and Josh Williams, but in the end, Allgaier narrowly won the award.
With Allgaier's fourth victory, JR Motorsports drivers now have 12 NMPA most popular driver awards in their kitty. The other drivers to have won the Most Popular Award for the same team are as follows:
With four race wins under his name on tracks like Charlotte, Daytona, Bristol and Martinsville, along with fifteen top 5s and twenty top 10s Allgaier finished second in the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Chase Elliott and Hailee Deegan join Justin Allgaier to win the NMPA Most Popular Driver award
Chase Elliott won the NMPA Most Popular Driver award for the sixth consecutive year in a row for the NASCAR Cup Series, Justin Allgaier won for the Xfinity Series and Haillie Deegan won for the Truck Series.
Elliott's 2023 season was the worst of his career, he missed six races after suffering a leg injury from a snowboarding accident and one from a race suspension.
Elliott was eliminated during the last race of the season at Martinsville after leading the No.9 Chevrolet to the round eight of the owner's playoffs.
Joining Eliiot and Allgaier on the winners' list was Hailee Deegan. For the NASCAR Truck Series, Deegan made history by becoming the second driver with three consecutive wins for the Most Popular Driver award.
Hailee Deegan is set to compete in the NASCAR Xfinity Series from the 2024 season with AM Racing. Deegan beat Matt DiBenedetto, Stewart Friesen, Carson Hocevar and Ben Rhodes to the award.