A pair of familiar faces prevailed as the 2024 National Motorsports Press Association Most Popular Driver Award winners as Chase Elliott earned the honor in the NASCAR Cup Series and Justin Allgaier won in the Xfinity Series. Rajah Caruth earned his first Most Popular Driver Award in the Craftsman Truck Series.
The 28-year-old Elliott has won the award for a seventh consecutive season, while Allgaier earned the Xfinity honor for the fifth time in the last six years.
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Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, is one of only five drivers at the Cup level to win the award five times or more, joining Richard Petty (eight), Bobby Allison (six), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (15) and Chase’s father, Bill Elliott (16). Chase additionally won the Most Popular Driver Award twice in the Xfinity Series (2014-15).
“Thank you to the fans,” Elliott said during the awards banquet. “The fans have meant so much to myself, my career, my family and beyond. When I look at that award, regardless whether I won it tonight or not, I’m grateful for the fans across the country and around the world for what they do for me, but I’ve always looked at it as a little bit of just an opportunity to honor and appreciate the legacy that my family has really set up for me. I think at the end of the day, I’ve always just tried to carry myself and represent that as they would want me to and try to make them proud.
“As I look at my fans and the people that genuinely want to see us do well, I just see a lot of dedication and people that are willing to spend their hard-earned money on T-shirts and hats and to come to the races and support us. I see a lot of that at the race track, and I don’t want anyone to ever think that I take any of that for granted.”
Allgaier, 38, saw his three-year streak snapped in 2022 by Noah Gragson before winning the Xfinity award the last two seasons. A JR Motorsports driver has won the Xfinity honor every year dating back to 2012.
The 22-year-old Caruth took home the Truck honor in the season where he became just the third Black driver to win a NASCAR national series race when he took the checkered flag in March at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Formed in 1965, the National Motorsports Press Association consists of qualified media members who report on the sport of auto racing through affiliations with print, radio, television and/or Internet news-gathering organizations. In addition to the NMPA Most Popular Driver Award, the NMPA presents an array of auto-racing honors, including the Richard Petty Driver of the Year Award, the Myers Brothers Award, the NMPA Pocono Spirit Award and the Wood Brothers Award of Excellence.