NASCAR Xfinity Series: Elliott Sadler voted Most Popular Driver of 2018
By Asher Fair
JR Motorsports’ Elliott Sadler has won the Most Popular Driver Award for the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, his final season in the sport.
JR Motorsports’ Elliott Sadler has been voted the Most Popular Driver of the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, which was his final season in the sport.
The 43-year-old Emporia, Virginia native will not return to the Xfinity Series next season, as he retired following the conclusion of the 2018 season, which was his eighth consecutive season and his 10th overall season as a full-time driver in the sport.
Sadler is set to be replaced behind the wheel of the #1 Chevrolet by Noah Gragson, who won this year’s Most Popular Driver Award in his second season as a full-time driver in the Truck Series as the driver of the #18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota.
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In the 33-race 2018 season, Sadler competed in every race and racked up a total of 14 top five finishes, 24 top 10 finishes and one pole position. He led 207 of the 5,701 laps that he completed. His best finishes were his second place finishes in the February and July races at Daytona International Speedway and the May race at Dover International Speedway.
Sadler recorded an average starting position of 9.4 and a series-high (among full-time drivers) average finishing position of 8.8. He finished in fifth place in the championship standings after advancing to the round of 8 but failing to advance to the Championship 4 for the first time since the Championship 4 was implemented ahead of the 2016 season.
By winning this year’s Most Popular Driver Award, Sadler became a four-time winner of the award, and he retires having won it in three consecutive seasons. Besides winning it in the 2016, 2017 and 2018 seasons, he also won it in the 2011 season, which was his first season as a full-time driver in the Xfinity Series since the 1998 season, as he drove full-time in the Cup Series from the 1999 season through the 2010 season.
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Congratulations to Elliott Sadler for being named the Most Popular Driver of the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series. All of us at Beyond the Flag and in the rest of the NASCAR community wish him well in his life as an ex-NASCAR driver.