NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Elliott. Eric Canha-Imagn Images

Chase Elliott named NASCAR's most popular driver for eighth consecutive year

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Nov 4, 2025 9:03 PM ET

For the eighth consecutive year, NASCAR fans voted 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott Most Popular Driver.

Elliott, who won two races in 2025 and finished eighth in the Cup Series points standings, received 56 percent of the vote en route to the award.

Elliott is now halfway to the 16 Most Popular Driver awards that his father, Bill Elliott, won in his Cup Series career. Bill won 10 consecutive Most Popular Driver awards from 1991-2000.

2025 is the 35th consecutive year in which NASCAR's most popular driver has been a member of the Elliott or Earnhardt family.

Driver No. 9 is still No. 1! @chaseelliott wins the 2025 NMPA Most Popular Driver Award for the eighth time! pic.twitter.com/0CxyyIj1DJ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 5, 2025

2025 was Chase Elliott's first multi-win campaign since 2022, though he did regress slightly from 2024 in other statistical categories. Elliott was eliminated in the penultimate round of the Cup Series playoffs for the second straight year and saw his average finish drop by nearly a full position.

Still, his popularity remains clear, and it will be hard for another driver to unseat Elliott as the most popular in the series.

2025 champion Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain were the other drivers to finish inside the top five in voting, in no particular order.

2026 will be Elliott's 11th season of full-time Cup Series competition.

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

More must-reads: