Stop me if y’all have heard this one before; Dale Earnhardt Jr. is NASCAR’s most popular driver.
Friday, the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was given the NMPA Sprint Most Popular Driver Award for the 13th consecutive year. He’s the only active driver to have won it. The two other drivers to have won it on this side of the millennium are the retired Bill Elliott and the deceased Dale Earnhardt. Elliott has won the coveted award a record 16 times. The award is the only one that is based entirely on NASCAR fan voting.
Over 410,000 ballots were cast by fans on NASCAR.com over an 11-week span that concluded with the Ford Championship Week at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
When all this started, I never dreamed I would win 13 of these,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Our fans, they just continue to support what we do and I’m thankful for that. We won three more races this year, which is good and gives me a lot of hope for 2016, and the fans are staying with us year in and year out. We’ve been able to reward that loyalty with victories, which is how it should be.”
Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that the man has a legion of followers wherever he goes. In fact, the only person surprised at the results was the winner of the award himself.
“I thought Jeff (Gordon) was going to win it, to be honest with you — his last year,” Earnhardt said. “You just never know. You never take it for granted. I’ve got a rabid fan base and a lot of great support. They work tirelessly to support our team.”
That last part of his quote is an understatement. You just need to visit Talladega Superspeedway to really see Junior Nation in full force.
With that said, he might have competition for this award next season with Chase Elliott coming into the Sprint Cup Series. Elliott won the Most Popular driver in the XFINITY Series for the second consecutive year in 2015.
