Kyle Busch has posthumously been named the winner of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver Award.

The winner of the fan-voted award was announced on Tuesday, during the NASCAR Awards Banquet at The Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, Florida.

A two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and the winningest driver across NASCAR’s National Series, Busch suddenly passed away earlier this year, on May 21, after complications with pneumonia progressed into sepsis. The Las Vegas, Nevada-native passed just six days after winning his 69th and final NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series event at Dover Motor Speedway.

Chase Elliott has long been considered NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver, winning the award every year since 2018 (when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. retired), but this season, the Dawsonville, Georgia-native and driver of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro elected to take his name off the ballot – making way for Busch to win the award.

Carson Hocevar, one of NASCAR’s rising stars, didn’t take his name off the ballot – saying that Kyle Busch wouldn’t want to win the award by default – but highly encouraged his fans to vote for Busch. Several other notable drivers, such as Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe, encouraged fans to do the same thing.

Busch joins the late Dale Earnhardt as the second driver to posthumously win the Most Popular Driver Award. In 2001, several months following his tragic death in the DAYTONA 500, Earnhardt was named the winner of the award, after Bill Elliott, who had a stranglehold on the honor for the 15 years prior, took his name off the ballot.

Justin Allgaier was voted Most Popular Driver in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.