Voting for the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Most Popular Driver Award presented by Hooters officially opens today, September 4, at noon ET. Fans can cast a vote for a single driver once daily at www.nascar.com/mostpopulardriver or on the NASCAR Mobile app. Votes shared by fans on Facebook and / or Twitter count double.
To be eligible, drivers must have declared series points and be in the Top-32 in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points by the start of the voting.
Voting closes for the NMPA Most Popular Driver Award on Wednesday, December 4, at noon ET.
The 2019 NMPA Most Popular Driver will be announced during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Awards program on Thursday, December 5. NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM will provide coverage of this year’s program.
The award was first presented to Curtis Turner in 1949 at the completion of NASCAR’s inaugural season. It has been administered by the NMPA and presented annually by the organization since 1983 and remains the only major NASCAR award determined solely by fan vote.
Twenty drivers have received the award at least once since the program began. NMPA Hall of Fame member and 1988 Cup Series champion Bill Elliott holds the record for most popular driver award wins with 16 coming in 1984 to 1988, 1991 to 2000 and 2002. Former Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the award 15 consecutive seasons from 2003 to 2017.
Chase Elliott, son of Bill Elliott and driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, received the honor in 2018.
“I’m so honored to win this award,” Elliott said after receiving the award in 2018. “With all of its history, the success Dale Earnhardt Jr. has enjoyed and the success of the Elliotts’ and Earnhardts’ (winning Most Popular Driver) for so many years is awesome. It’s kind of crazy to watch that come full circle. To be able to receive the award this year is special and I’ll certainly enjoy it.
“Performance on track and wanting to do well is my biggest hope. I just want to make all of the people proud that voted for us all year. Those are the things that mean so much to me.”
— NASCAR —