Dale Earnhardt Jr. Wins NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Award Yet Again

For the eighth consecutive year, NASCAR’s most popular driver is - who else? - Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Though Earnhardt Jr. had an off year on the track, the driver’s faithful Junior Nation fans stuck with him and kept his streak alive. He graciously accepted the NASCAR NMPA Hamburger Helper Most Popular Driver Award on Tuesday at the annual Myers Brothers Luncheon in Las Vegas.

“The first year we won the Most Popular Driver award, I was just blown away and didn’t expect I would have an opportunity in this sport filled with so much talent and so much great personality,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We just keep winning it and the fans are just truly real loyal.”

Bill Elliott is the only other driver to win the Most Popular Driver Award eight years in a row.

Earnhardt Jr., an avid Washington Redskins fan, said he can relate to his fans standing by him through the tough times because he roots for his favorite teams in the same fashion.

“I kind of have a sense of what that’s like because of the sports I follow and the teams I follow,” he said. “The loyalty that no matter what happens, you’re there every year and you stick with them.

“Each year that I’ve won it, it just means more and more, I think.”

Winning the award for an eighth straight time made Earnhardt Jr. reflect back to his days racing Late Models at Myrtle Beach. People would ask him for his autograph, he said, “and I assumed it was solely because of the relationship with my father.”

“There came a point in my career when I became more successful where I felt like I was earning my own core fans,” he said. “You would hear fans say they liked you, but didn’t like your dad. That was kind of cool.”

Overall, more than 1.5 million votes were cast in this year’s contest. Fans could vote once per day, and the vote totals were reset prior to the Chase.

The other finalists included (in alphabetical order): Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart.

Elliott won the Most Popular Driver award a record 10 times (he also holds the record for 16 overall wins).