LEBANON, Tenn. — Chase Elliott has won Cup Series Most Popular Driver every season since 2018, but he is striving to put another driver ahead of him this year.
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He has volunteered to remove himself from contention so that the fans can vote for Kyle Busch, who suddenly passed away on May 21 at the age of 41.
"I'm not guaranteed the win, so let's make that super clear, number one," Elliott said on Saturday 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 Elliott family has pushed for someone else to win Most Popular Driver after they passed away. Bill Elliott, the man who holds the record with 16 Most Popular Driver awards, took himself out of contention in 2001.
The elder Elliott made this move after Dale Earnhardt passed away in a crash at Daytona International Speedway. At that point, Bill had won the award 15 times, and he appeared to be a lock yet again in 2001.
However, he made the decision in August 2001 to remove his name from the ballot. He became the first driver in NASCAR history to do so.
"Being voted the Most Popular Driver for 15 years is certainly an honor," Bill said in 2001, per the Auto Channel. "But, this is a much different year than others.
"Dale Earnhardt never won this award, and I think it would be a tremendous honor for the Earnhardt family to receive it this year. I certainly don't want to stand in the way of his family receiving this award."
Decades after Bill pulled his name from the ballot, his championship-winning son is doing the same. Elliott is also showing his support for a fellow competitor who died too soon, and he hopes that his sizable fanbase will respond by clicking on Busch's name.
"Just feel like he deserves to win the award, truthfully, and obviously, I don't know what was going to happen with that this year, but I just wanted to throw my support," Elliott added. "Just an opportunity to make sure that I didn't get in the way of that."
