Elliott, Allgaier, Caruth earn 2024 NMPA Most Popular Driver awards

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.

RELATED: Every NMPA MPD Award winner

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).

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.