NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award

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NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award is awarded to the most popular NASCAR driver in the Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and Craftsman Truck Series every year since 1956. It started as a poll of the drivers and then all NASCAR Cup Series competitors; today, it is voted for by fans across the United States.

The award is presented by the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA). Sponsored by Hamburger Helper in 2010, it was also sponsored by Wheaties in 2011. The ceremony presenting the award is called the NASCAR Awards Banquet, and it is held in Nashville, Tennessee in November of each year.

The winner of the most awards is Bill Elliott with 16 in the NASCAR Cup Series. Justin Allgaier has the most with five awards in the Xfinity Series, and Johnny Benson Jr. & Hailie Deegan have the most awards at three in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has the second-most awards (15) and holds the longest streak, winning the award in 2003 and every year until his retirement in 2017.^[1]^[2]

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Recipients

Cup Series

More information Year, Driver ...

Year	Driver	Team	Notes
1949	Curtis Turner	Hubert Westmoreland, Curtis Turner, Frank Christian	Voted on by a panel
1950	Not awarded
1951
1952	Lee Petty	Petty Enterprises	National award, covering every NASCAR series. Lee Petty won the series championship in 1954.
1953
1954	Petty Enterprises, Gary Drake
1955	Tim Flock	Carl Kiekhaefer, Hubert Westmoreland
1956	Curtis Turner	Charlie Schwam
1957	Fireball Roberts	Pete DePaolo, Fireball Roberts, Dick Beaty, Buck Baker
1958	Glen Wood	Wood Brothers Racing
1959	Jack Smith	Jack Smith
1960	Rex White	Beau Morgan, Rex White, Scotty Cain, L. D. Austin	Won the series championship
1961	Joe Weatherly	Doc White, Bud Moore Engineering, Elmo Henderson
1962	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises
1963	Fred Lorenzen	Holman-Moody, Wood Brothers Racing, Stewart McKinney
1964	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises	Won the series championship. Won that season's Daytona 500.
1965	Fred Lorenzen	Holman-Moody	Won that season's Daytona 500.
1966	Darel Dieringer	Toy Bolton, Bud Moore Engineering, Petty Enterprises, Reid Shaw, Betty Lilly, Junior Johnson & Associates
1967	Cale Yarborough	Wood Brothers Racing, Neil Castles, Bud Moore Engineering
1968	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises
1969	Bobby Isaac	Nord Krauskopf
1970	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises
1971	Bobby Allison	Bobby Allison, Holman-Moody
1972	Richard Howard
1973	Bobby Allison
1974	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises	Won the series championship. Won that season's Daytona 500.
1975	Won the season championship.
1976
1977
1978
1979	David Pearson	Wood Brothers Racing, Rod Osterlund	Part time driver
1980	Bobby Allison	Bud Moore Engineering
1981	Ranier-Lundy
1982	DiGard Motorsports	Won that season's Daytona 500.
1983	Won the series championship
1984	Bill Elliott	Melling Racing
1985	Won that season's Daytona 500
1986
1987	Won that season's Daytona 500.
1988	Won the series championship
1989	Darrell Waltrip	Hendrick Motorsports	Won that season's Daytona 500
1990	Missed six races due to injuries.
1991	Bill Elliott	Melling Racing
1992	Junior Johnson & Associates
1993
1994
1995	Bill Elliott Racing
1996	Missed seven races due to injuries.
1997
1998	Missed one race due to the death of his father.
1999
2000	Missed two races due to injuries.
2001	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing	Awarded posthumously. Perennial winner Bill Elliott withdrew his name from the 2001 ballot to encourage his supporters to posthumously vote for Earnhardt.
2002	Bill Elliott	Evernham Motorsports	Withdrew his own name from future ballots following this year
2003	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
2004	Won that season's Daytona 500.
2005
2006
2007
2008	Hendrick Motorsports
2009
2010
2011
2012	Missed two races due to injury.
2013
2014	Won that season's Daytona 500.
2015
2016	Missed final 18 races due to injury.
2017
2018	Chase Elliott	Won first three career races at Watkins Glen, Dover 2, and Kansas 2.
2019
2020	Won the series championship
2021
2022	Won the regular season championship
2023	Missed seven races, six due to injury and one due to suspension for on-track conduct
2024

Xfinity Series

More information Year, Driver ...

Year	Driver	Team	Notes
1982	Jack Ingram	Ingram Racing	Won the series championship
1983	Sam Ard	Thomas Brothers Racing	Won the series championship
1984
1985	Jimmy Hensley
1986	Brett Bodine
1987	Jimmy Hensley	Sam Ard Racing
1988	Larry Pearson	Pearson Racing
1989	Rob Moroso	Moroso Racing	Won the series championship
1990	Bobby Labonte	Labonte Motorsports
1991	Kenny Wallace	Rusty Wallace Racing
1992	Joe Nemechek	NEMCO Motorsports	Won the series championship
1993
1994	Kenny Wallace	FILMAR Racing
1995	Chad Little	Mark Rypien Motorsports
1996	David Green	American Equipment Racing
1997	Mike McLaughlin	Frank Cicci Racing
1998	Buckshot Jones	Buckshot Racing
1999	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.	Won the series championship
2000	Ron Hornaday Jr.
2001	Kevin Harvick	Richard Childress Racing	Won the series championship
2002	Greg Biffle	Roush Racing	Won the series championship
2003	Scott Riggs	ppc Racing
2004	Martin Truex Jr.	Chance 2 Motorsports	Won the series championship
2005
2006	Kenny Wallace	ppc Racing
2007	Carl Edwards	Roush Fenway Racing	Won the series championship
2008	Brad Keselowski	JR Motorsports
2009
2010	Penske Racing	Won the series championship
2011	Elliott Sadler	Kevin Harvick Incorporated
2012	Danica Patrick	JR Motorsports	The first female driver to win the Xfinity Series MPD. The first female driver to win the MPD award overall.
2013	Regan Smith
2014	Chase Elliott	Won the series championship
2015
2016	Elliott Sadler
2017
2018
2019	Justin Allgaier
2020
2021
2022	Noah Gragson
2023	Justin Allgaier
2024	Won the series championship

Craftsman Truck Series

Johnny Benson Jr. (left) and Hailie Deegan (right) are tied for Most Popular Driver Awards in the Truck Series with three.

More information Year, Driver ...

Year	Driver	Team	Notes
1995	Butch Miller	Liberty Racing
1996	Jimmy Hensley	Grandaddy Racing
1997	Ron Hornaday Jr.	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
1998	Stacy Compton	Impact Motorsports
1999	Dennis Setzer	K Automotive Racing
2000	Greg Biffle	Roush Racing	Won the series championship
2001	Joe Ruttman	Bobby Hamilton Racing
2002	David Starr	Spears Motorsports
2003	Brendan Gaughan	Orleans Racing
2004	Steve Park
2005	Ron Hornaday Jr.	Kevin Harvick Incorporated
2006	Johnny Benson Jr.	Bill Davis Racing
2007
2008	Won the series championship
2009	Ricky Carmichael	Kevin Harvick Incorporated, Turner Motorsports
2010	Narain Karthikeyan	Wyler Racing	The first non-American driver to win the award
2011	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Won the series championship
2012	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Turner Motorsports	First South American winner
2013	Ty Dillon	Richard Childress Racing
2014	Ryan Blaney	Brad Keselowski Racing
2015	John Hunter Nemechek	SWM-NEMCO Motorsports
2016	Tyler Reddick	Brad Keselowski Racing
2017	Chase Briscoe
2018	Noah Gragson	Kyle Busch Motorsports
2019	Ross Chastain	Niece Motorsports
2020	Zane Smith	GMS Racing
2021	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	The first female driver to win the Truck Series MPD. The second female driver to win the MPD overall.
2022
2023	ThorSport Racing
2024	Rajah Caruth	Spire Motorsports	The first African American to win the MPD.

Multiple winners

More information Driver, Cup ...

Driver	Cup	Xfinity	Truck	Mexico	Total
Bill Elliott	16	0	0	0	16
Dale Earnhardt Jr.	15	1	0	0	16
Richard Petty	9	0	0	0	9
Chase Elliott*	7	2	0	0	9
Bobby Allison	7	0	0	0	7
Justin Allgaier*	0	5	0	0	5
Elliott Sadler	0	4	0	0	4
Lee Petty	3	0	0	0	3
Brad Keselowski*	0	3	0	0	3
Jimmy Hensley	0	2	1	0	3
Ron Hornaday Jr.	0	1	2	0	3
Johnny Benson Jr.	0	0	3	0	3
Kenny Wallace	0	3	0	0	3
Hailie Deegan	0	0	3	0	3
Fred Lorenzen	2	0	0	0	2
Sam Ard	0	2	0	0	2
Joe Nemechek	0	2	0	0	2
Curtis Turner	2	0	0	0	2
Martin Truex Jr.	0	2	0	0	2
Greg Biffle	0	1	1	0	2
Noah Gragson*	0	1	1	0	2
* – still active as of 2025^[update]

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