Joe Gibbs Racing Announced Huge Change As Four Drivers Restricted with Potential Departure

Joe Gibbs Racing Announced Huge Change As Four Drivers Restricted with Potential Departure

At the NASCAR Awards Ceremony on Friday evening, a lot of awards were handed out.

The grand daddy of them all was the NASCAR Cup Series National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Most Popular Driver Award, which went to Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott.

This is the seventh consecutive season that the 28-year-old has been voted by the NASCAR fanbase as the Most Popular.

returned to the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs in 2024 after a rough 2023 campaign, which saw him fail to advance to the NASCAR Cup Playoffs for the first time in his career.

Nine races into the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, the driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 squashed any thoughts that he would miss the Playoffs two seasons in a row as he picked up a victory in the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Throughout the entirety of the season, Elliott was among the most consistent in the NASCAR Cup Series garage as he amassed 11 top-five finishes, and 19 top-10s through the 36-race season.

Elliott only recorded two DNFs on the year, one was a crash in the September Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

The other was a poorly timed DNF due to suspension issues after a wild crash with Tyler Reddick in the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 8 Playoffs opening race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The 33rd-place finish at Vegas put Elliott in a must-win situation heading into the next-to-last race of the NASCAR Cup Series season, if he wanted to battle for the championship at Phoenix, at Martinsville.

Elliott, who led 129 laps in that event, came home just short of the win with a runner-up finish.

Elliott would go on to finish seventh in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship standings.