Sports · Motorsport · 1 hr ago
Kyle Busch posthumously wins NASCAR Cup Most Popular Driver award
Kyle Busch was named NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver for 2026 after his death.
His wife, Samantha, accepted the award at the series banquet.
Busch was a two-time Cup champion who died at 41 after pneumonia progressed into sepsis.
Chase Elliott withdrew from the vote and urged fans to support Busch, while Carson Hocevar also encouraged his fans to vote for him.
Busch is only the second driver to win the award after death, following Dale Earnhardt, who received it after dying in a 2001 crash.
He is the first winner outside the Earnhardt and Elliott families since 1990, a distinction that highlights the award’s unusual history.
Busch also won a record 234 races across NASCAR’s three national divisions.
Kyle Busch was named the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver after his death earlier this year.
Busch, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, died at 41.
His wife, Samantha Busch, accepted the award at the NASCAR post-season awards in Miami.
Chase Elliott, who won the award from 2018 to 2025, withdrew from this year’s contest and urged fans to vote for Busch.
This was Busch’s first time winning the honour and the first posthumous win since Dale Earnhardt.
- Who
- Kyle Busch, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, won the award posthumously.
- What
- He was named the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver.
- When
- The award was announced at the NASCAR post-season awards in Miami in 2026. Busch died on May 21 of that year.
- Where
- Miami, at the NASCAR awards banquet.
- Why
- Chase Elliott withdrew from the contest and urged his fans to vote for Busch. The sources do not state the full voting results.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Chase Elliott won NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver award each year.
Kyle Busch died at 41, according to Motorsport.com.
Busch was named the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver at the awards in Miami.
Samantha Busch accepted the award on his behalf.
- Award
- 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver
- Winner
- Kyle Busch
- Age at death
- 41
- Death date
- May 21, 2026
- Previous winner
- Chase Elliott, 2018–2025
- Acceptance
- Samantha Busch, in Miami
4 sources
What people are saying
There was no ‘Rowdy’ without the fans, and there will never be another ‘Rowdy’, because there is truly no one else like Kyle.
Winning the Most Popular Driver award, he wanted it so bad.
He was passionate, outspoken and fiercely competitive. He was ‘Rowdy’ through and through.