The most popular driver award for the NASCAR Truck Series and Xfinity Series was recently announced alongside the Cup Series. While Chase Elliott took away the MPD again in the cup series, Dale Earnhardt Jr’s driver took home the award for the Xfinity Series. Meanwhile, the Truck Series victory was taken home by someone special, making her the only woman to be awarded more than one MPD.
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JR Motorsports’s Noah Gragson took home the Xfinity title. Soon after the awards announcement, Xfinity Series’ official Twitter handle posted a picture of Gragson along with the tweet, “No. 9 is No. 1 in this category! @NoahGragson is the winner of the 2022 Most Popular Driver Award in the #XfinitySeries!“
Gragson had shown an outstanding performance throughout this season in the series, and he deserves this award, too. Moreover, it is also a perfect send-off for a driver heading off to the Cup Series as a full-time driver next season.
Hailie Deegan becomes the only female driver with two MPDs
Last year when Deegan picked up the most popular driver award in the NASCAR Truck Series, she had become the second woman to ever win the Most Popular driver award in any NASCAR category after Danica Patrick. Deegan also became the first female driver to win an award in the Truck Series.
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DARLINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA – MAY 06: Hailie Deegan, driver of the #1 Wastequip Ford, waits on the grid prior to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Dead on Tools 200 at Darlington Raceway on May 06, 2022 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
However, after winning the award once again this year, she has now settled herself in the record books to have the highest number of MPDs as a female driver in the series. At the moment, Deegan’s future kind of hangs in the balance. As she tries to find her way into an Xfinity Series team, so she can progress through the ranks.
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Where she will exactly be next year is still up for speculation. If she does return to the Truck Series, she would have a competitor for the most popular driver award next year. In the form of Natalie Decker. However, this is all up for speculation and cannot be answered yet. We wait till Deegan announces where she will be headed in 2023.
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Jayant Chhabra