Why Chase Elliott removed himself from NASCAR's most popular driver ballot

Chase Elliott has followed in the footsteps of his father, Bill, in many ways throughout his NASCAR career: He drives the No. 9 car, he's a Cup Series champion and he's put together a streak of winning NASCAR's most popular driver award, doing so eight years in a row from 2018-25.

Earlier in the week, Elliott announced that he'd be following his father's lead in another way: taking his name off of the most popular driver ballot to make way for it to be posthumously awarded to Kyle Busch, the two-time Cup Series champion who died on May 21.

Following the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001, Bill Elliott, then a 15-time winner of the award, withdrew his name to allow for Earnhardt to posthumously win the award.

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"When Dale passed in the early 2000s, Dad removed his name," Elliott said Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway. "I was a young child, but looking back on that, I just always thought that was a really cool and admirable nod to frankly, one of his biggest rivals. Just something that I always had a lot of respect for.

"I had been asked about it a few times over the course of the year since we lost Kyle. I certainly thought about that some. Also, kind of thought about what Kyle meant to my career and the relationship that we had and also, how much noise our fans have made for him over the course of his career. I know he embraced that villain role, and maybe people totally didn't like him, but they sure did make a lot of noise for him."

Elliott said he believes Busch is a "deserving winner" of the most popular driver award.

"He has my vote," Elliott said. "And I encourage those out there that want to get involved and want to take part in that to show him that same love. Ultimately, I think he deserves it. It'll be a really cool honor for he and his family."

In 2001, Earnhardt did win posthumously win the award after Bill Elliott removed himself from the ballot. With Chase doing the same and Carson Hocevar, NASCAR's newest superstar, urging his fans to vote for Busch, it seems like "Rowdy" is well on his way to posthumously receiving his first most popular driver honor.