LINCOLN, Ala. — The voting for the National Motorsports Press Association Most Popular Driver Award has officially opened, but one driver's name is absent. Chase Elliott has withdrawn.
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NASCAR confirmed the news on Friday, Oct. 23, as voting opened. Elliott, the eight-time defending winner of the annual postseason award, chose to remove his name so that people would vote for the late Kyle Busch, who passed away on May 21 at the age of 41.
This is a move that many expected to happen. Elliott previously spoke to media members at Nashville Superspeedway in May and volunteered to remove himself from contention.
"I'm not guaranteed the win, so let's make that super clear, number one," Elliott said at Nashville Superspeedway. "That's not me saying, 'Oh, it's mine, and I need to remove myself for that reason.'
"I just think it's one of those things that... I think that Kyle is a guy that you know really deserves something of an award like that.
"I think that he's a guy that has had a lot of fans throughout the course of his career. I know the boos, and it was fun and all those things, but (he had a) lot of supporters, a lot of really passionate fans."
This is not the first time that a member of the family has removed their name for another driver to win. Bill Elliott, the all-time record holder with 16 Most Popular Driver awards, opted out in 2001 so that the late Dale Earnhardt could win.
And while Elliott is the only driver to remove his name from contention, multiple others have called for Busch to win Most Popular Driver this season.
Carson Hocevar, Connor Zilisch, Chase Briscoe, John Hunter Nemechek, and Kyle Larson have all called for their fans to vote for Busch.
Made my vote! https://t.co/AyoG3G8T0g pic.twitter.com/GOB19kfk78
— Chase Briscoe (@chasebriscoe) October 23, 2026
The fans are able to vote on NASCAR.com and on the NASCAR mobile app for their favorite driver across all three national NASCAR series. They can vote for one driver per ballot submission, with voting being limited to five submissions per day, per email.
Voting will remain open until Monday, Nov. 9, 2026 at noon E.T. The winner will be announced Tuesday, Nov. 10 during the annual NASCAR Awards Ceremonies in Miami, Florida.
