Chase Elliott named most popular NASCAR Cup driver again in 2025
PHOENIX — NASCAR announced Tuesday at its annual awards banquet Chase Elliott was named the most popular driver of its Cup Series for 2025.
Chase Elliott earned the National Motorsports Press Association’s Most Popular Driver Award in the NASCAR Cup Series for the eighth year in a row.
Elliott was not in attendance to accept the awards banquet, which only honored the Championship 4 drivers of which he was not one of them. However, he recorded a video and posted it to social media.
Elliott won the award for the first time in 2018, the same year he won his first Cup race and a year after Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his 15th and final MPD Award (2003-2017)
The award runs in the Elliott family. Bill Elliott won the MPD Award a record 16 times in 1984-88, 1991-2000 and 2002.
Darrell Waltrip took home the 1989 and 1990 MPD Awards while the 2001 MPD Award was posthumously bestowed upon Dale Earnhardt.
Before the Elliott and Earnhardt families mostly dominated the MPD Award from 1984 onward, the award shifted between other who’s who of the sport.
NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver Award Winners
- 2025: Chase Elliott (8)
- 2024: Chase Elliott (7)
- 2023: Chase Elliott (6)
- 2022: Chase Elliott (5)
- 2021: Chase Elliott (4)
- 2020: Chase Elliott (3)
- 2019: Chase Elliott (2)
- 2018: Chase Elliott
- 2017: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (15)
- 2016: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (14)
- 2015: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (13)
- 2014: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (12)
- 2013: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (11)
- 2012: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (10)
- 2011: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (9)
- 2010: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (8)
- 2009: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (7)
- 2008: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (6)
- 2007: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (5)
- 2006: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (4)
- 2005: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (3)
- 2004: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2)
- 2003: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- 2002: Bill Elliott (16)
- 2001: Dale Earnhardt
- 2000: Bill Elliott (15)
- 1999: Bill Elliott (14)
- 1998: Bill Elliott (13)
- 1997: Bill Elliott (12)
- 1996: Bill Elliott (11)
- 1995: Bill Elliott (10)
- 1994: Bill Elliott (9)
- 1993: Bill Elliott (8)
- 1992: Bill Elliott (7)
- 1991: Bill Elliott (6)
- 1990: Darrell Waltrip (2)
- 1989: Darrell Waltrip
- 1988: Bill Elliott (5)
- 1987: Bill Elliott (4)
- 1986: Bill Elliott (3)
- 1985: Bill Elliott (2)
- 1984: Bill Elliott
- 1983: Bobby Allison (7)
- 1982: Bobby Allison (6)
- 1981: Bobby Allison (5)
- 1980: Bobby Allison (4)
- 1979: David Pearson
- 1978: Richard Petty (9)
- 1977: Richard Petty (8)
- 1976: Richard Petty (7)
- 1975: Richard Petty (6)
- 1974: Richard Petty (5)
- 1973: Bobby Allison (3)
- 1972: Bobby Allison (2)
- 1971: Bobby Allison
- 1970: Richard Petty (4)
- 1969: Bobby Isaac
- 1968: Richard Petty (3)
- 1967: Cale Yarborough
- 1966: Darel Dieringer
- 1965: Fred Lorenzen (2)
- 1964: Richard Petty (2)
- 1963: Fred Lorenzen
- 1962: Richard Petty
- 1961: Joe Weatherly
- 1960: Rex White
- 1959: Jack Smith
- 1958: Glen Wood
- 1957: Fireball Roberts
- 1956: Curtis Turner (2)
- 1955: Tim Flock
- 1954: Lee Petty (3)
- 1953: Lee Petty (2)
- 1952: Lee Petty
- 1950-51: No award recorded
- 1949: Curtis Turner
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Dominic Aragon View All
Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.
From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book "All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story" with racer Geoff Bodine.
Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.