’Tis the season, you know.
Some folks are looking forward to voting for someone. Some are looking forward to voting against someone. Some fall into both camps.
I’m here to convince you to join the “vote against” camp.
And guess what. In this election, you really can vote early and vote often. Legally even.
NASCAR opened the voting booth this week for its annual Most Popular Driver award, and voting runs through Nov. 21. The award is presented each year by the National Motorsports Press Association.
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Now, please, please, please stop voting for Chase Elliott. He’s won it six straight years and, let’s be honest, he hasn’t really done anything to get your vote this time.
Chase has had a so-so year, though that can change with the potential wave of a checkered flag this week at Martinsville.
Off the track, can you recall one interesting interview he’s given to the network folks? Listen, I don’t necessarily blame him for playing it cool and not rocking the boat very often. He’s pretty much been that way ever since he told Kevin Harvick to “have a merry offseason and a happy Christmas.”
I know, I know. He flies his own helicopter, can probably still get free wings at Hooters and remains a handsome young man. But let’s reward someone who’s actually gone out of his way to earn your vote.
Who, though?
Remember, Darrell Waltrip won this thing … TWICE
Throughout the award’s history, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase’s dad, Bill, owned the award for a combined 31 years (16 for Bill, 15 for Junior).
Bill’s long run was interrupted for two years (1989-90) by Darrell Waltrip.
Darrell Waltrip!
If you remember how the fans (and some fellow racers) felt about DW in the ’70s and much of the ’80s, you could never imagine him owning any trophy with the word popular engraved.
So I say that to say this …
Why not Kyle Busch?
There, I said it.
Here’s your chance to reward Kyle Busch
What an irony it would be to honor Kyle with this after the worst season of his Cup Series career. He has one more chance to win a race and run his streak to 20 straight seasons (his entire full-time career, by the way) with at least one win. And it’s highly doubtful he gets it.
Kyle spent most of the first half of the season battling with sub-par equipment. After the Olympic break, his RCR team seemed to find something and, given better gear, Kyle gave dogged effort after dogged effort to get that win, and was usually done in by crap luck.
Of late, it has the feel of resignation and just playing out the string of 2024.
Consider how young Kyle would’ve dealt with this. And now consider how well 39-year-old Kyle has weathered this challenge.
This isn’t to say he has fully morphed into beloved elder statesman, but by gosh, he’s so much closer to that than we would’ve ever thought imaginable.
Think about that when you enter the cyber voting booth.
And man, talk about ballot harvesting! You can vote up to five times, each day, through Nov. 21. You can vote at NASCAR.com or on the NASCAR mobile app.
Vote early, vote often, vote Kyle!
— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR most popular driver poll: Vote for this guy, not Chase Elliott
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