Chase Elliott Takes Himself Out of the Most Popular Driver Vote

TL;DR: Chase Elliott will not be on the 2026 Most Popular Driver ballot. The eight-time reigning winner asked to be removed when voting opened Friday so the award can honor Kyle Busch, who died in May at 41 and is eligible posthumously. His father Bill did the same thing for Dale Earnhardt in 2001.

For eight years, this vote has been a formality with one name on it. Not this year.

The National Motorsports Press Association opened voting Friday for the 2026 Most Popular Driver Award, and Chase Elliott is nowhere on the ballot. Not because he lost — because he asked to be taken off. Per NASCAR.com’s official report, Elliott removed himself to honor Kyle Busch, who died on May 21 from sepsis complications and remains eligible for the award posthumously. He had said back in May that he wanted to see Busch honored, and when the ballot opened, he made it happen.

What exactly did Elliott do?

He withdrew before the ballots opened. Voting for the 2026 award began at 9 AM ET on Friday, Oct 23, and Elliott’s name simply is not there — he opted to remove his name from consideration in honor of Busch, per NASCAR.com. The streak ends at eight: Elliott had won the award every year since 2018, when he picked it up the season after Dale Earnhardt Jr. stepped away from full-time competition. Walking away from a run like that voluntarily, mid-career, is not how athletes usually handle popularity contests.

Why honor Busch?

Because the award is the one piece of NASCAR hardware Busch never won. The two-time Cup champion amassed 63 Cup victories and 234 wins across NASCAR’s three national touring series — the all-time record — and never once took home the fan vote, an award decided entirely by the people in the stands. Elliott said it himself in May, days after Busch’s death: “I just think it’s one of those things that Kyle is a guy that really deserves an award like that. He’s a guy that’s had a lot of fans throughout the course of his career.” This is Busch’s final year on the ballot and his last chance at the award, which is why the gesture had to happen now.

Has this happened before?

Yes, and the parallel is what gives the gesture its weight. In 2001, after Dale Earnhardt died on the final lap of the Daytona 500, Bill Elliott — Chase’s father — withdrew from Most Popular Driver consideration and threw his support behind Earnhardt winning it posthumously. It remains the first and only posthumous win in the award’s history. Bill Elliott had won the award ten straight years before that withdrawal, a record 16 times in total, and won it again in 2002 before Dale Jr. began his 15-year run. Twenty-five years later, the son made the same call for a rival he respected.

What does the open ballot look like now?

Wide open, and that is the point. Busch is on the ballot alongside the 34 other points-eligible Cup drivers, per NASCAR.com. Fans can vote for one driver per ballot submission, with up to five submissions per day per email, through the NASCAR site or mobile app; voting also covers the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series winners. The polls close at noon ET on Monday, Nov 9, the day after the Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and the winner is revealed Nov 10 at the awards banquet in Miami, right after Championship Weekend decides the title. The ballot opens during a 2026 season that has already rewritten parts of its own rulebook, but the fan vote is the one honor the drivers cannot lobby for. If Busch wins, it would be the award’s second posthumous honor. If anyone else does, it would be the first winner outside the Earnhardt and Elliott families since 1990.

Why does it matter?

Because this award has never been about speed. It is the one NASCAR honor decided entirely by fans, which is why an eight-year run meant something different from eight years of wins. Elliott understood what the award is and chose to spend its meaning on someone who cannot accept it. The family symmetry is hard to miss: the trophy that has been passed between the Earnhardts and the Elliotts for nearly four decades is now, by an Elliott’s own choice, available to everyone else. The all-time wins history gives the context for what Busch built across the sport’s three series, and the championship roll call shows where his two titles sit. What the vote says about him now is up to the fans who get five ballots a day to answer with.