Chase Elliott Drops Out of NASCAR Most Popular Driver Voting

CONCORD, N.C. -- Eight-time NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver Award winner Chase Elliott dropped out of voting before it opened, encouraging his fans to vote for Kyle Busch.

Elliott dropped out of the National Motorsports Press Association's annual contest when voting opened Friday. He encouraged fans to vote for Busch, who passed away in May at age 41. 

Elliott referenced a 2001 decision by his father, Bill Elliott, to drop out of Most Popular Driver Award voting after Dale Earnhardt died. Like his eight-time award-winning son would later become, Elliott was a 15-time winner of the award and bowed out to endorse Earnhardt. Earnhardt won the award that year before Bill Elliott won it again in 2002.

Chase Elliott wasn't even six years old at the time. He remembered seeing his father doing that and admired it but didn't know how he could do it. He worked through the process with the NMPA and landed on the decision which he said honors "the noise" fans made for him, whether good or bad.

"I believe he is the deserving winner of it. He has my vote," Chase Elliott said. "It would be a really cool honor for him and his family."

Elliott came into the Cup Series in 2016 after his debut in 2015. There were at least 12 seasons where Elliott and Busch raced together. However, what Busch did across the broader NASCAR landscape -- as Elliott was coming up -- stood out to him.

"If you were coming up and you said you didn't want to be like him, you were lying," Elliott said. "He was a game changer, that's for sure."

Elliott wasn't alone in encouraging fans to vote for Busch. Kyle Larson and Carson Hocevar also encouraged their fans to vote for the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.

Larson posted a video on social media, encouraging votes for Busch with the caption, "He's got my vote. #rowdy". Hocevar also posted on social media, explicitly telling his fans not to vote for him and to vote for Busch. He later elaborated that they could win in a different but not this year, in the wake of Busch's death.

When Chase Elliott won the award last year, Busch, Larson, Christopher Bell, Shane van Gisbergen, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, William Byron, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin made the top-10 vote getters behind him.

An eight-time award winner, Chase Elliott trails Bill Elliott who leads all drivers with 16 Most Popular Driver Awards. Dale Jr. is second with 15.

Past award winners in the modern era include Darrell Waltrip (1989-90), Bobby Allison (1972-73, 1980-83), David Pearson (1979) and Richard Petty (1974-78).