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Chase Elliott received NASCAR's Most Popular Driver award as part of the sport's end-of-season awards. The 2020 Cup Series champion has now won the accolade, which is determined by a fan vote, seven years in a row.
Elliott's win continues an interesting trend with the award. For the last 34 straight years, a driver with either the name Elliott or Earnhardt have been voted the most popular driver by the fans.
Prior to Elliott's fan dominance, Dale Earnhardt Jr. earned the award 15 straight times from 2003-2017. Elliott's dad, Bill, held the honor 10 straight times from 1991-2000 and once more in 2002. Earnhardt's dad, Dale Earnhardt Sr., won the award in 2001, the same year he tragically perished in a last-lap crash in the Daytona 500.
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The trend was brought to light by NASCAR on NBC via X.
However, the continous pattern sparked some criticism from race fans, with one X user calling for the Elliott-Earnhardt reign to be stopped.
"We need to break up this duopoly," they wrote.
There were a few other comments from fans who expressed their desire for a new face to be the sport's most popular driver. One wrote:
"Time to change it up for once."
"How is this a good thing?" said another.
"Wow it’s almost like people just vote blindly for a name huh," said a third.
While there was some negative shown regarding the trend, there were some users that were amazed by the pattern that's spanned over three decades of NASCAR. One user wrote:
"This is wild."
"Unbelievably insane statistic," said another.
"That is amazing. It's unfortunate that Dale Sr only got it the year he passed. Then it went back to Bill Elliott for 2002, then Dale Jr., starting in Bill Elliott's last year in 2003. Wonder if Chase Elliott will have it until he retires like Dale Jr." commented a third.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he's humbled to be among NASCAR's Most Popular Driver winners
Dale Earnhardt Jr. took to social media on Friday to express his gratitude of being among the elite company of the most popular drivers over the last three decades. The now-retired Cup Series star and soon-to-be commentator for the TNT Sports/Amazon broadcast team won the Most Popular Driver award 15 straight times in his career.
In response to NASCAR on NBC's X post regarding the Elliott-Earnhardt dominance as the sport's most popular driver, the 26-time Cup Series expressed how humble he is to be a part of the group.
"Nascar fans are incredibly loyal and it's been humbling to be in the company of these 3 drivers," he wrote.
To go along with his Most Popular Driver accolade, Chase Elliott snapped a 42-race winless streak this past season at the Texas Motor Speedway. The Georgia native finished seventh in the final standings and nabbed 11 top-five finishes.
Earnhardt Jr., meanwhile, took broadcasting duties off this season, but did make an appearance behind the wheel of the #88 Jr. Motorsports Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series at Bristol, where he finished seventh.
