Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins 2012 Most Popular Driver Award
Brace yourselves. Prepare to not be surprised.
On Wednesday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was announced as the 2012 NMPA NASCAR Most Popular Driver at the Myers Brothers Awards Luncheon in Las Vegas.
It's the 10th straight year that Junior has won the award, which ties him with Bill Elliott for the most consecutive wins in a row. Elliott won the award from 1991-2000. Elliott is also the last driver outside if Junior to win the award, having done so in 2002. (In 2001, the year he died at Daytona, Dale Earnhardt Sr. won the award.)
Over 934,000 votes were cast for the award. The preliminary voting period ran from February-September, and then the top 10 vote getting drivers had their totals reset for the final vote. 2012 Sprint Cup Champion Brad Keselowski wasn't one of the ten finalists, however that can likely be attributed to the cut-off of the early voting period.
The rest of the top 10 went like this: Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Bobby Labonte.
