Best Driver ESPY Award

The Best Driver ESPY Award, known alternatively as the Best Auto Racing Driver ESPY Award, is an annual award honoring the achievements of an individual from the world of motorsports.^[1] It was first awarded as part of the ESPY Awards in 1993.^[1] The Best Driver ESPY Award trophy, designed by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan,^[2] has been presented annually to the racing driver adjudged to have performed the best in a given calendar year.^[1] Since 2004, the winner has been chosen by online voting through three to five choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee.^[3] Before that, determination of the winners was made by an panel of experts.^[4] Through the 2001 iteration of the ESPY Awards, ceremonies were conducted in February of each year to honor achievements over the previous calendar year; awards presented thereafter are conferred in July and reflect performance from the June previous.^{[n 1][5]}

Best Driver ESPY Award
Awarded for	Racing driver of the year
Location	Los Angeles (2019)
Presented by	ESPN
First award	1993
Currently held by	Max Verstappen
Website	www.espn.co.uk/espys/

The inaugural winner of the award was British driver Nigel Mansell who finished the 1992 season with a then record-breaking nine wins and fourteen pole positions en route to winning his sole Formula One World Drivers' Championship.^[6][7] Mansell moved to the Championship Auto Racing Teams the following year, and won the series title at the first attempt,^[8] earning him a second ESPY Award in 1994.^[6] Mansell is one of six drivers to have won the award more than once. As of 2022^[update], multiple NASCAR Cup Series champions Jeff Gordon (1996, 1998, 1999, 2007) and his teammate Jimmie Johnson (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) have won the most awards with four each. NASCAR drivers have won more awards than any other motorsports series, with nineteen victories, followed by Formula One with five wins. It was not awarded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[9] The most recent winner of the award was Formula One driver Max Verstappen who won the award in 2024.

Winners and nominees

Best Driver ESPY Award winners and nominees

Year	Image	Driver	Nationality	Racing series	Type of vehicle	Other nominees	Ref
1993		Nigel Mansell	GBR	Formula One	Open wheel	N/A	[6]
1994		Nigel Mansell (2)	GBR	CART	Open wheel	N/A	[6]
1995		Al Unser Jr.	USA	CART	Open wheel	Dale Earnhardt ( USA) – NASCAR Michael Schumacher ( GER) – Formula One	[6][10]
1996		Jeff Gordon	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Michael Schumacher ( GER) – Formula One Jacques Villeneuve ( CAN) – CART	[11]
1997	–	Jimmy Vasser	USA	CART	Open wheel	Terry Labonte ( USA) – NASCAR Damon Hill ( GBR) – Formula One	[12]
1998		Jeff Gordon (2)	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	N/A	[13]
1999		Jeff Gordon (3)	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Dale Earnhardt ( USA) – NASCAR Mark Martin ( USA) – NASCAR	[14][15]
2000		Dale Jarrett	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	John Force ( USA) – NHRA Juan Pablo Montoya ( COL) – CART	[16]
2001		Bobby Labonte	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Gil de Ferran ( BRA) – CART John Force ( USA) – NHRA Buddy Lazier ( USA) – IndyCar	[17]
2002		Michael Schumacher	GER	Formula One	Open wheel	Hélio Castroneves ( BRA) – CART Gil de Ferran ( BRA) – CART John Force ( USA) – NHRA Jeff Gordon ( USA) – NASCAR Kevin Harvick ( USA) – NASCAR Sam Hornish Jr. ( USA) – IndyCar	[18]
2003		Tony Stewart	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	John Force ( USA) – NHRA Gil de Ferran ( BRA) IndyCar Sam Hornish Jr. ( USA) – IndyCar Michael Schumacher ( GER) – Formula One	[19]
2004		Dale Earnhardt Jr.	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Scott Dixon ( NZL) – IndyCar Matt Kenseth ( USA) – NASCAR Tony Pedregon ( USA) – NHRA Michael Schumacher ( GER) – Formula One	[20]
2005		Michael Schumacher (2)	GER	Formula One	Open wheel	Greg Anderson ( USA) – NHRA Kurt Busch ( USA) – NASCAR Dan Wheldon ( GBR) – IndyCar	[21]
2006		Tony Stewart (2)	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Jimmie Johnson ( USA) – NASCAR Sam Hornish Jr. ( USA) – IndyCar Melanie Troxel ( USA) – NHRA Dan Wheldon ( GBR) – IndyCar	[22][23]
2007		Jeff Gordon (4)	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Dario Franchitti ( GBR) – IndyCar Kevin Harvick ( USA) – NASCAR Jimmie Johnson ( USA) – NASCAR Tony Schumacher ( USA) – NHRA	[24]
2008		Jimmie Johnson	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Kyle Busch ( USA) – NASCAR Scott Dixon ( NZL) – IndyCar Lewis Hamilton ( GBR) – Formula One Tony Schumacher ( USA) – NHRA	[25]
2009		Jimmie Johnson (2)	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Hélio Castroneves ( BRA) – IndyCar Scott Dixon ( NZL) – IndyCar Lewis Hamilton ( GBR) – Formula One Tony Schumacher ( USA) – NHRA	[26]
2010		Jimmie Johnson (3)	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Kyle Busch ( USA) – NASCAR Dario Franchitti ( GBR) – IndyCar Ron Hornaday Jr. ( USA) – NASCAR Tony Schumacher ( USA) – NHRA	[27]
2011		Jimmie Johnson (4)	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Greg Anderson ( USA) – NHRA John Force ( USA) – NHRA Dario Franchitti ( GBR) – IndyCar	[28]
2012		Tony Stewart (3)	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Dario Franchitti ( GBR) – IndyCar Sebastian Vettel ( GER) – Formula One Del Worsham ( USA) – NHRA	[29]
2013		Ryan Hunter-Reay	USA	IndyCar Series	Open wheel	Tony Kanaan ( BRA) – IndyCar Brad Keselowski ( USA) – NASCAR Sebastian Vettel ( GER) – Formula One	[30]
2014		Ryan Hunter-Reay (2)	USA	IndyCar Series	Open wheel	Scott Dixon ( NZL) – IndyCar Dale Earnhardt Jr. ( USA) – NASCAR John Force ( USA) – NHRA	[31]
2015		Kevin Harvick	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Erica Enders-Stevens ( USA) – NHRA Lewis Hamilton ( GBR) – Formula One Juan Pablo Montoya ( COL) – IndyCar Will Power ( AUS) – IndyCar	[32]
2016		Kyle Busch	USA	NASCAR	Stock car	Scott Dixon ( NZL) – IndyCar Erica Enders-Stevens ( USA) – NHRA Lewis Hamilton ( GBR) – Formula One Alexander Rossi ( USA) – IndyCar	[33]
2017		Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Formula One	Open Wheel	Ron Capps ( USA) – NHRA Jimmie Johnson ( USA) – NASCAR Simon Pagenaud ( FRA) – IndyCar Martin Truex Jr. ( USA) – NASCAR	[34]
2018		Martin Truex Jr.	USA	NASCAR	Stock car racing	Brittany Force ( USA) – NHRA Lewis Hamilton ( GBR) – Formula One Josef Newgarden ( USA) – IndyCar Series	[35]
2019		Kyle Busch (2)	USA	NASCAR	Stock car racing	Scott Dixon ( NZL) – IndyCar Series Lewis Hamilton ( GBR) – Formula One Steve Torrence – ( USA) – NHRA	[36][37]
2020	Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic						[9]
2021		Lewis Hamilton (2)	GBR	Formula One	Open Wheel	Erica Enders ( USA) – NHRA Chase Elliott ( USA) – NASCAR Scott Dixon ( NZL) – IndyCar	[38]
2022		Kyle Larson	USA	NASCAR	Stock car racing	Álex Palou ( ESP) – IndyCar Steve Torrence ( USA) – NHRA Max Verstappen ( NLD) – Formula One	[39][40]
2023		Max Verstappen	NED	Formula One	Open Wheel	Brittany Force ( USA) - NHRA Kyle Larson ( USA) - NASCAR Josef Newgarden ( USA) - IndyCar	[41][42]
2024		Max Verstappen (2)	NED	Formula One	Open Wheel	Ryan Blaney ( USA) - NASCAR Matt Hagan ( USA) - NHRA Álex Palou ( ESP) - IndyCar	[43][44]

Statistics

Winners by nation represented Nation Winners Nominations  USA 23 72  GBR 2 17  GER 2 8  NLD 2 3  BRA 0 6  NZL 0 7  COL 0 2  AUS 0 1  CAN 0 1  FRA 0 1  ESP 0 2

Winners by series Series Winners Nominations NASCAR 19 39 Formula One 7 20 IndyCar 2 29 CART 3 8 NHRA 0 23

Multiple winners and nominees Name Wins Nominations Jeff Gordon 4 5 Jimmie Johnson 4 7 Tony Stewart 3 3 Lewis Hamilton 2 8 Michael Schumacher 2 6 Kyle Busch 2 4 Max Verstappen 2 3 Ryan Hunter-Reay 2 2 Nigel Mansell 2 2 Kevin Harvick 1 3 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1 2 Scott Dixon 0 7 John Force 0 6 Dario Franchitti 0 4 Tony Schumacher 0 4 Erica Enders 0 3 Gil de Ferran 0 3 Sam Hornish Jr. 0 3 Greg Anderson 0 2 Hélio Castroneves 0 2 Dale Earnhardt 0 2 Juan Pablo Montoya 0 2 Sebastian Vettel 0 2 Josef Newgarden 0 2 Dan Wheldon 0 2

See also

• Auto racing trophies and awards
• List of CART/Champ Car champions
• List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions
• List of Indy Racing League champions
• List of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champions

Notes

1. Because of the rescheduling of the ESPY Awards ceremony, the award presented in 2002 was given in consideration of performance betwixt Fethbruary 2001 and June 2002.^[5]