The Trackhouse Racing driver is among the top 10 a week into voting for this year’s National Motorsports Press Association Most Popular Driver Award.
Voting for the award opened on October 7 and has already established the fan favourites.
Van Gisbergen joins three-time champion Joey Logano, two-time champion Kyle Busch, 2020 champion Chase Elliott, 2021 Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, 2023 champion Ryan Blaney, and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin.
Other drivers in the list include Christopher Bell, William Byron, and van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain.
Voting for the award is open until November 4 (AEDT) and the winner will be announced at the NASCAR Awards banquet in Scottsdale, Arizona after the championship decider.
Elliott has been voted NASCAR’s most popular Cup Series driver for the past seven years.
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Van Gisbergen’s inclusion should come as no surprise given his road course success and special rugby-inspired post-race celebrations.
“The support I’ve gotten coming over here (United States) has been great,” said van Gisbergen.
“As I always say, when New Zealanders or Aussies go overseas, the support we get is amazing.
“It’s in all different series, like IndyCar, Formula 1 and Formula E, it’s so cool to see the support we get and it’s really appreciated.
“Every track I go to, there are always some Kiwis or Aussies there to support me. It’s really special.”
The Kiwi will continue his season at Talladega Superspeedway on Monday, October 20.
“It’s crazy and very different than a traditional oval,” he explained.
“We are doing 320 kilometres in a pack of 40 cars. It’s amazing how fast we are going, all squeezed together.
“Talladega is one of the most difficult races that we do. Hopefully this weekend we can prove that we are getting better at that (superspeedway racing) too and get a good result.”
The YellaWood 400 at Talladega Superspeedway gets underway at 5am (AEDT) on Monday, October 20.
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