(Press Release from NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications)
The fans have spoken, and they have selected a pair of series champions as well as a pair of repeat award winners in balloting for the NASCAR regional touring series’ 2014 Most Popular Driver Awards.
The Most Popular Driver Award winners for 2014 are:
- Ben Rhodes (Louisville, Ky.), NASCAR K&N Pro Series East
- Brandon McReynolds (Mooresville, N.C.), NASCAR K&N Pro Series West
- J.R. Fitzpatrick (Ayr, Ont.), NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1
- Rodrigo Marban (Mexico City), NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series
- Freddy Nordstrom (London), NASCAR Whelen Euro Series
- Melissa Fifield (Wakefield, N.H.), NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour
- Andy Seuss (Hampstead, N.H.), NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour
First-time award winners from the group include Rhodes, McReynolds, Marban and Fifield while Nordstrom and Seuss retained their popular status from last year’s balloting.
Rhodes, the 2014 champion of the K&N Pro Series East, garnered the most votes of any driver in 2014, 450 more than Marban of the Mexico Toyota Series. K&N Pro Series East drivers also received the most collective votes of any series, 2,133 more than the Mexico Toyota Series.
The closest race was in the Canadian Tire Series where championship runner-up Fitzpatrick edged Alex Tagliani by just 48 votes. Fitzpatrick was also the Most Popular Driver in the series’ inaugural 2007 season.
McReynolds captured 42-percent of the K&N Pro Series West vote for the largest individual share of any series while the largest margin of victory came in the Mexico Toyota Series where Marban outdistanced the nearest competition by 1,226 votes.
Fifield, a rookie in 2014, made history as the first female competitor to take home the Most Popular Driver Award in 30 years of Whelen Modified Tour competition.
Nordstrom and the Whelen Southern Modified Tour titlist Seuss now have the most career awards among the 2014 selectees with three apiece. Nordstrom’s have come in successive fashion while Seuss previously won in 2009 and 2013.
The Most Popular Driver Award winners will be recognized as part of the NASCAR Touring Series Awards on Dec. 13 in the Charlotte (North Carolina) Convention Center at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
This must be fixed. How can she be the most popular driver. She shouldn’t even be running in the modified tour. What is this division coming too? This is a joke!!!
Is this a case of NASCAR throwing a bone to a driver who was consistently 2 seconds slower than the rest of the pack? She certainly isn’t who most of the fans come to see.
They finally treated her decently. She finished in front of some of the big names, even after being black flagged. I bet if they didn’t black flag her she would of had some top fives and or tens.
Where can we find the results for the rest of the tracks I am looking for Bowman Gray and Lee Speedway Thank you
It is certainly a surprise to me that Melissa Fifield won most popular driver. Who votes? Most popular female driver maybe. Well congratulations to her.
wait who won most popular on the tour? never even heard the name.
This award has been decided solely by online fan balloting each year since 2008. The same process applied this year.
who????
So what you are saying Jason is the people who have never seen her race or even follow the series are stuffing the ballot box, which in turn makes these awards meaningless.
Wow, she is more popular than Ryan Preece? Shows how much NASCAR tour means to race fans, nothing.
Most popular driver? Really? If you think about I guess she is seen almost as often as the leaders being that she is lapped every 9 laps or so.
Hey Jason is this one of those ballot systems they used in Florida a couple presidents back?
And the northeast racing scene laughs at Bowman Gray. Between this favorite driver award and the drama at Waterford, the folks from down around Bowman Gray must be having a good laugh.
I guess those of us who didn’t vote shouldn’t complain. At the end of the day the award doesn’t mean much. Has nothing to do with on the track accomplishments.
…and it has very little to do with the fans, racers, or officials of the Whelen Modified tour who follow and/or work on the series either. Just another example of NASCAR screwing up something that should be very simple.
I’ll attempt to clarify one more time – anyone with access to the world wide web had an opportunity to vote once a day from Oct. 9-Nov. 15. This is the same process that elected Stefanik last year and Preece, Bonsignore and Christopher in previous years. It was up to you all to decide who is most popular, it was solely in your hands.
Cunningham, are you serious? Are you really washing your hands of this and saying it was truly a doing of the fans? And by “fans”, I mean genuine modified tour fans. I’m imagining a high school of kids voting everyday for their classmate, most of which never went to a race to watch their classmate get lapped just a few laps after the start, or black flagged when too slow. This was not based on popularity with respect to racing, such as would be the case for someone like Stefanik, TC, or Bonsignore. The process was just abused, and it happened right under your nose, on your watch. Fifield is never going to make an impact, probably won’t last on the tour much longer, if she comes back, but her name will be etched in NASCAR records forever. And it happened on your watch and it is part of your record.
This is why there are so many controls when voting in public elections. To maintain integrity in the process.
Jason the point here is the fans are to vote, racers don’t vote which I believe r 95% of the people here on raceday. Bottom line NASCAR needs to do a better job on finding mod tour fans seems to me there are less an less every year
“less than less”?
I proudly voted for Miss Fifield! She’s FANtastic!
WELL AT LEAST FOR BEING IN ALL THE RACES AND NOT WRECKING HERSELF AND OTHERS IS A GOOD START! LETS SEE WHAT SHE DOES NEXT YEAR.
HOW ABOUT RYAN PREECE’S GREAT RUN IN THE TBR #36 A HOMESTEAD!!!
CANT WAIT FOR TURKEY DERBY AT WALL!!! A WEEK FROM TODAY!!!!!!
HEY JEREMY IS THAT 98 OCTONE UR WEARING!!!!
HOPEFULLY AT RIVERHEAD MOD WINS IT, JUST SAYING DIG!!!
“I’ll attempt to clarify one more time – anyone with access to the world wide web had an opportunity to vote once a day from Oct. 9-Nov. 15. This is the same process that elected Stefanik last year and Preece, Bonsignore and Christopher in previous years. It was up to you all to decide who is most popular, it was solely in your hands.” Jason Cunningham, NASCAR
Hey Cunningham, since you really believe that Miss Fifield is the genuine, bonafide, certified most popular driver, what do you think that means to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour?
During the pre-race driver introductions, I’d expect to hear roars from the crowd when Miss Fifield was introduced, but that never happened. Where were all these Fifield fans? Perhaps they couldn’t get their parents to drive them to the track, or it was past their curfew.
What drivers placed 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th in the Most Popular Driver voting?
Stefanik, Preece, Bonsignore and TC must be honored to be in such revered company.
Years from now, people are going to look over the Most Popular Driver statistics and see Fifield, and ask: Who? Oh, never mind, they are asking that now.
Hey Cunningham, it happened on your watch. It’s going to follow you forever.
Hey Cunningham, here’s a couple more ways to look at this.
Of the 1,861 total laps run in 2014, Fifield finished 1,121 laps for a whopping 60% completion rate. Fifield never came close to finishing on the lead lap. The best completion rate was 93%.
Official 2014 Placement: 21
Average finish: 23.08
Points per Race…
Fifield: 20.92 pts/race
Ramstrom finished 2014 in 37th place, ran two races, collected 41 pts for an average of 20.5 pts/race. Ramstrom is right behind Fifield in pts/race, then the bottom five that ran only one race.
Fifield finished 2014 in 21st place. All cars between Fifield and Ramstrom had more pts/race than Fifield.
20th place collected an average of 26.7 pts/race
22nd place collected an average of 24.6 pts/race
The bottom five cars had < 21 pts/race, ran only one race.
Hey Cunningham, as a NASCAR official, are you proud of this Most Popular Driver Award?
Have fun with that award at the banquet.
This is a vote on popularity. A person can be popular and not have results. Just look how popular the Red Sox were and they never won anything for many years! If she wasn’t black flagged just imagine how off the number you posted would be. She was black flagged at Thompson and still finished ahead of some pretty good shoes. She is popular get over your jealousy!!!!
Gil, when Fifield finished ahead of some of those pretty good shoes, it was because those pretty good shoes had equipment failures and were out of the race, or were involved in accidents and were taken out of the race. And you are proud that Fifield finished ahead of other cars that crashed or broke and could not run the rest of the race? You must go to the races hoping that the entire field wrecks and breaks so Fifield is the only car left running so she can cruise to the checkers.
Ya know, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is incredibly popular. For good reason.
“Fifield, a rookie in 2014, made history as the first female competitor to take home the Most Popular Driver Award in 30 years of Whelen Modified Tour competition.”
Most people reading that won’t know that Fifield would not be competitive in the SK light series with her Tour car.
This is excellent self-promotion. That just looks so fantastic for NASCAR, who is so desperately trying to appear genuinely interested in diversity.
I don’t go or watch for crashes. You were quoting results. I only followed what you started. It is a great promotion. I don’t cheer for her, but black flags had to have hurt her results in a few races. Why can’t a driver be popular that doesn’t have great results?
Hey Cunningham, read this, the NASCAR rules governing the Most Popular Driver voting. You need to read it. NASCAR has made it clear that NASCAR has the option to intervene in the voting process and affect the results to maintain the integrity of the vote. Go ahead, read it. You should read it, you need to read it. It’s about time you read the Most Popular Driver voting rules.
But the publicity value of being able to say that a female was the MPD can’t be passed up. Even at the the expense of the integrity of the voting process, the sanctioning body, the Modified series, and out of respect for the competitive owners, drivers, teams and loyal fans.
What sort of value did the 01 bring to NWMT racing in 2014 to deserve and substantiate any sort of adulation and popularity? What were her fans thinking when they watched her race? (Even though the lack of cheering proves that her “fans” had no presence at a race.) Were “they” hoping to set the bar at a new height, as in reduce the number of laps down at the finish? Or how about not being black flagged? Or how about not breaking? How can a car with such horrendous performance end up producing the MPD? Why is this allowed, even though the rules are designed to intervene and prevent this?
Cunningham, I hope you present the NWMT MPD award at the banquet.
Official Rules
ELIGIBILITY AND HOW TO VOTE
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Voting for the 2014 Most Popular Driver Award for the NASCAR Nationwide Series begins at 12:00:00 AM Eastern Time on October 7th, 2014 and ends at 11:59:59 PM Eastern Time on November 15th, 2014. Voting for the 2014 Most Popular Driver Award for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, the NASCAR Touring Series and the NASCAR Weekly Series begins at 12:00:00 AM Eastern Time on October 7th, 2014 and ends at 11:59:59 PM Eastern Time on November 14th, 2014. During the voting period for each series, visit the website for the Most Popular Driver voting page for the NASCAR Nationwide Series, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, the NASCAR Touring Series, and the NASCAR Weekly Series (each a “Website”) to view the list of eligible candidates. To cast your vote for an eligible candidate, select the ‘vote’ button for that candidate, you may select one (1) candidate per ballot submission, and then complete the form by providing your email address or providing access to your email via Facebook®. You may only submit one (1) Vote per person per email address per day (i.e., 12:00AM ET to 11:59:59PM ET) (each ballot submission, a “Vote”). Entries generated by script, macro or other automated means may be void. The use of multiple e-mail addresses, Facebook accounts, name variations, or other methods to create additional votes by a single individual during any one-day period is prohibited and may result in disqualification of the vote from the Vote in the sole discretion of National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. (“NASCAR”).
VOTING RESULTS
Voting ends at 11:59:59 PM Eastern Time on November 14th, 2014 for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, the NASCAR Touring Series, and the NASCAR Weekly Series AND 11:59:59 PM Eastern Time on November 15th, 2014 for the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The name of the driver receiving the most Votes for the NASCAR Nationwide Series, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, the NASCAR Touring Series, and the NASCAR Weekly Series are scheduled to be announced on-stage during the applicable series awards event.
ADDITIONAL TERMS
NASCAR reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to void suspect entries, or to modify, cancel,
or suspend part or all of this voting should virus, bugs, non-authorized human intervention or other causes beyond the control of NASCAR corrupt or impair the administration, security, fairness or proper play of the Vote. If cancelled or terminated early, NASCAR will determined the winner by tallying the Votes that NASCAR, in its sole discretion, finds to be valid at the time of termination or cancellation. If suspended, NASCAR will determine the winner by tallying the Votes that NASCAR, in its sole discretion, finds to be valid at the time of suspension and the Votes accumulated when voting resumes. NASCAR may prohibit a participant from taking part in the Vote or disqualify a participant’s vote if, in its sole discretion, it determines that said participant is attempting to undermine the legitimate operation of the Vote by cheating, hacking, deception, or other unfair playing practices (including the use of automated quick entry programs) or intending to annoy, abuse, or threaten any other participant or NASCAR representatives. NASCAR assumes no responsibility for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, or providers, including, but not limited to, the Facebook platform, computer equipment, software, failure of any entry to be received by NASCAR on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any web site, any combination thereof, or otherwise, whether caused by NASCAR, participants, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the promotion or by any technical or human error which may occur in the processing of submissions which may damage a user’s system or limit a participant’s ability to participate in the promotion. Rules and procedures are subject to change at the sole discretion of NASCAR without notice. All personally-identifiable information provided during the voting process will be treated in accordance with the privacy policy posted here. By participating in this Vote, you agree to these rules, NASCAR’s privacy policy, the terms and conditions of Facebook, and the decisions of NASCAR, which decisions shall be final and legally binding in all respects. You acknowledge that the 2014 Most Popular Driver Award Vote is no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook.
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darealgoodfella How could one person(?) be so jealous to go through all of the crap that you are going through to try and change voting results???? The fans voted you or your girl lost, so suck it up like a human being!
WTF PEOPLE WHO CARES ABOUT THIS CRAP?? IT’S TURKEY DERBY THIS WEEKEND AT WALL STADIUM, COME ON, BOOGITY BOOGITY BOOGITY MILESSA, LETS GO RACING!!!
HOLY SHIP, WHAT IF SHE GOES TO WALL AND WINS THE MOD TOUR RACE SATURDAY, SHIP MAN WTF, WHAT THE HELL WOULD I DO??????
Have fun at the Turkey Derby. The one and only time I headed there it was so cold that my son and I went back to my sister’s place in Haverford. Then we headed West on Rte 30 and found a few seafood places to gorge ourselves without getting cold. There was a Ferrari dealer on the street and a Volvo dealer that had an original racing Ford Cobra. We stayed warm.
Gil, where are you getting this jealous angle? Jealous of what? Do you really think that the drivers that were competitive are actually jealous? Dude, they aren’t jealous, they are laughing.
“…go through all of the crap…” Gil, it’s called reading. Not that hard at all.
Hey Pickles, the 01 did not go to Bristol.
Let’s hope Turkey Derby isn’t snowed out!!! Nor’easter forecast for these parts.
Hey Gil I work at Volvoville of Huntington on Long Island, been a Tech there for 15 yrs so if ya wanna stop in let me know but we have no SEAFOOD!!! Hahahaah!
I’ll be at Wall this
Weekend watching stewy freshen, jimmy blewett, Ryan preece, etc BLAZIN the hi banks of wall and when I GET COLD I have a shot or two and your more then welcome to hVe one so stop by and have a seat,!,,,!!!!!
And bring your boy we also have hot chocolate!!!!!
Let’s go Long Island boys!!!!!
Hi Pickles, Thanks for the offer. My boy is now 35 with a family of his own. We’ll be doing Thanksgiving up here in CT and not at my sisters in PA. Are you into 122S Volvos as we might be getting rid of some parts.
THANKS FOR THE OFFER GIL BUT NO, BUT IF YOUR SERIOUS AND DONT WANT TO WASTE THEM I CAN HOOK YOU UP WITH PLENTY OF PEOPLE WHO WOULD APPRECIATE THEM. DO YOU KNOW EVR GORDON THE P1600 3 MILLION MILER? HE GETS THE DINOSAUR SERVICED AT V VILLE .
YES GOODFELLA FORGOT ABOUT BRISTOL, BUT WASNT THERE A REASON SOMETHING LIKE NASCAR ENCOURAGED HER NOT TO GO CUZ OF THE SPEED?
NOT FOR NOTHING THO MY HATS OFF TO HER FOR TRYING ON THE TOUR.
BTW, PIT SPACE A WALL IS FULL AND NOW TRAILERS HAVE TO PIT IN THE PARKING LOT, 38 TOUR MODS REGISTERED, 35 WALL/SK MODS, 70 LEGENDS 40 FACTORY STOCKS!!!!!
DAM, CANT WAIT!!!!!
I remember seeing Irv’s car when he hit one million miles. I’ve been to you shop many years ago. I’ll see if my son can dump the accumulation of 122 stuff. If not, you might be hearing from me in the spring.
I give the girl credit just for trying. Have fun at Wall. Wish that I was younger and healthier or I might try going myself.