The National Motorsports Press Association announced that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the recipient of this years NMPA NASCAR Most Popular Driver Award. It is the 11th consecutive year Earnhardt Jr. has been selected through a vote of the fans, breaking a tie with Bill Elliott for most consecutive awards received. Elliott continues to hold the overall mark, having been named the series most popular driver 16 times. ‘I dont really keep track of the stats or the score, but Bill was a great driver and ambassador for the sport’ Earnhardt Jr. said. ‘He represents the sport really well to this day, as does his son Chase, whos coming up and carrying on the family name. But, Ive always looked up to Bill as a driver so its pretty neat.” More than 1 million votes were tallied for 39 eligible drivers from this years first race to the last at the site www.MostPopularDriver.com. Fans voted once per day with Earnhardt Jr. collecting more than 700,000 votes. The award was presented to the Hendrick Motorsports driver today during the annual NMPA Myers Brothers Luncheon, a part of the season-ending Champions Week activities in Las Vegas. The final top-10 drivers, in order of votes received were: Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards. Earnhardt Jr. is still honored to receive the trophy.(NMPA)
