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Fansided

NASCAR: Top 5 most annoying driver fanbases

By Asher Fair

FORT WORTH, TX - APRIL 07: Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 TaxAct Ford, and Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 7, 2017 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
FORT WORTH, TX - APRIL 07: Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 TaxAct Ford, and Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 7, 2017 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /
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BROOKLYN, MI – AUGUST 12: Chase Elliott, driver of the #24 NAPA Chevrolet, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway on August 12, 2017 in Brooklyn, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
BROOKLYN, MI – AUGUST 12: Chase Elliott, driver of the #24 NAPA Chevrolet, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway on August 12, 2017 in Brooklyn, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

#5 – Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports, No. 24 Chevrolet

Chase Elliott came into the NASCAR Cup Series as a full-time driver at age 20 with arguably the sport’s top team in Hendrick Motorsports and took over the #24 Chevrolet driven by Jeff Gordon, who will forever be one of the all-time greats.

Because of whose ride he took over in addition to the fact that he is the great Bill Elliott’s son, Chase came into the Cup Series with a huge fanbase, one that has been likened to the initial fanbase of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was well-known thanks to the fact that his father, the late Dale Earnhardt, was one of three seven-time champions of the sport. Yes, Chase was the 2014 Xfinity Series champion, but that’s certainly not where all of his fans came from.

Chase has a great chance to be NASCAR’s next Most Popular Driver following the retirement of 14-time defending Most Popular Driver Award winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. After all, Chase’s father Bill holds the record with 16 Most Popular Driver Awards, and Chase did win the All-Star fan vote this season.

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But look at all of the other relatively young drivers who, unlike Elliott, have already won at least one race in the NASCAR Cup Series. And none of them have a fanbase as large as he does. Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon and Chris Buescher are a few, with the last three being drivers no one would ever compare to Elliott.

Sure, all of those drivers have driven in more career Cup Series races than Elliott has. But they have all won at least one race while Elliott was actually driving full-time, so the comparison is an accurate one.

Yet Elliott has far more fans than all of those drivers, and he is the driver who his fanbase considers has the best chance to be NASCAR’s next superstar. While that is certainly a possibility, he should actually win a race first before he’s talked about as a star, much less a superstar. After all, he’s at risk at not even making it into this season’s playoffs.

Some of those drivers listed above have little to no chance at becoming superstars, and they still have more victories than Elliott does. In 63 career Cup Series races thus far, he has yet to drive to Victory Lane, yet you’d think he was already a Cup Series champion by the way many of his fans talk about him.

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