Most Popular….Elliott, again UPDATE: By a 2-to-1 margin, Bill Elliott is this year’s Most Popular Driver over Dale Earnhardt. It’s Elliott’s 10th consecutive award and 15th in the past 17 years. Darrell Waltrip interrupted the run in 1989 and 1990(Daily Press)(11-21-2000) UPDATE: For the 10th straight year and for the 15th time in his career, Bill Elliott is the winner of the National Motorsports Press Association’s Most Popular Driver Award for the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. Elliott, the 1988 Winston Cup champion, received 38.8 percent of more than 280,000 votes cast this year in balloting conducted by the NMPA. Dale Earnhardt, a seven-time Winston Cup champion, finished second in the voting with 16.2 percent of the vote. Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and 2000 Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte rounded out the top five in the vote. David Poole presented this year’s award at the annual Myers Brothers Breakfast that kicked off Friday’s activities at the Winston Cup Awards Banquet. The breakfast was held at the Starlight Roof of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The Waldorf’s Grand Ballroom is the site of the banquet Friday evening(ESPN 8:30pm/et). Elliott has won the award every year since 1991. He also won it five straight years from 1984 until 1988 until Darrell Waltrip interrupted his reign by winning the 1989 and 1990 awards. Fifty-eight drivers received at least one vote and 20 different drivers getting at least 1,000 votes(That’s Racin’). NOTE: this is only vote info I have seen, have not seen the top 10 or 20 or what the vote totals were(12-8-2000)
