Keselowski heads list of 2008 most popular drivers

Saturday night at the final awards banquet of the 2008 season, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Ted Christopher was also honored as the series' most popular driver.

He was the last of eight drivers to receive the honor via first-time fan voting on NASCAR.COM and through www.nascarhometracks.com, the official NASCAR developmental series Web site. The most popular driver award wasn't revealed until each series' season-ending banquet.

More than 253,000 votes were cast for 258 drivers in the Nationwide Series, Craftsman Truck Series and each of NASCAR's six national touring series. Voting began July 7 and closed for each series as its season ended.

In addition, many track and team/driver Web sites throughout NASCAR carried the links to voting on NASCAR.COM.

Brad Keselowski, the most popular driver in the Nationwide Series, led all drivers with 59,300 votes. Fans cast 131,875 votes for drivers in the Nationwide Series, tops among the eight series.

Every fan vote was crucial, especially in one series. The closest battle was in the Camping World Series West where Moses Smith won the award by percentage points over Austin Cameron. Of the 7,612 votes tallied, Smith earned 15.409 percent while Cameron totaled 15.151 percent.

Two series champions were also voted as most popular drivers -- Christopher and Johnny Benson (Truck Series). But the other six winners were drivers inside -- and outside -- their series' final championship top 10, illustrating the fans' passion for their favorites regardless of ranking.