The 2026 ESPY Best Driver award is the first in four years without Max Verstappen, who swept the last three trophies. Four nominees span three racing series: Formula 1 rookie Kimi Antonelli and new world champion Lando Norris, IndyCar three-time champion Alex Palou, and NASCAR winner Tyler Reddick. Kalshi makes Antonelli the front-runner. The winner is revealed at the ESPYS on July 15, 2026, and the live board above tracks every nominee.
The 2026 ESPY Best Driver award breaks a three-year pattern. Max Verstappen won this category in each of the last three years and is not among the four nominees this time. In his place is a field that reaches across every major series: Formula 1, IndyCar, and NASCAR. Kalshi's board installs Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli as the front-runner ahead of new Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris, IndyCar's Alex Palou, and NASCAR's Tyler Reddick. The award is decided by fan voting, and the winner is revealed live at the ESPYS on July 15, 2026.
The four-driver field spans three racing series, and the market's read does not line up with the trophy count. Kalshi has the least-decorated nominee as the front-runner and the most-decorated one as the longest shot, a signal that name recognition is driving a fan vote more than raw results.
Kimi Antonelli is the Mercedes rookie who replaced Lewis Hamilton, and his debut Formula 1 season is why he leads the board. Antonelli took a maiden pole in Miami sprint qualifying to become the youngest polesitter of any kind in 75 years of the sport, scored his first podium with a P3 at the Canadian Grand Prix, and closed the year with back-to-back podiums at Interlagos and Las Vegas. His 150 points were the most by any rookie under the current scoring system and left him seventh in the drivers' championship. That mix of youth and highlight-reel firsts is exactly what an online fan vote rewards.
Lando Norris carries the strongest Formula 1 resume in the field. He won the 2025 world championship by two points over Verstappen after a final-round decider in Abu Dhabi, closing out a season of 7 wins, 18 podiums, and 7 poles. It was McLaren's first drivers' title in 17 years. Kalshi still slots the reigning champion behind Antonelli, a gap that speaks to attention and fanbase rather than accomplishment.
Alex Palou is the trophy-case argument. He won the 2025 IndyCar championship, his third straight and fourth overall as the youngest four-time champion in series history, and took the Indianapolis 500 in the same year to become the first Spaniard to win the race. His season ran to 8 wins and 13 podiums across 17 starts, and he clinched the title in Portland with two races to spare. Despite the deepest resume of the four, Palou sits as Kalshi's longest shot, a reflection of IndyCar's smaller voting audience next to Formula 1 and NASCAR.
Tyler Reddick is the lone NASCAR nominee and the one who forced his way into the field with a record-setting start. He opened 2026 by winning the Daytona 500, passing Chase Elliott on the final lap with a push from teammate Riley Herbst, then became the first Cup Series driver ever to win the first three races of a season. Reddick went on to win five of the first nine races, matching a feat last accomplished by Dale Earnhardt in 1987. Kalshi keeps him bunched near Norris in the second tier.
The 2026 ESPY Best Driver award is decided on July 15, 2026, when the winner is named live during the ESPYS. Fan voting closes ahead of the broadcast, one nominee is announced as Best Driver on stage, and the market resolves to that driver while every other nominee contract resolves to no. The live board above tracks each nominee's price up to the reveal.
The Best Driver honor has been handed out since 1993, when it began as Outstanding Auto Racing Performer of the Year, and it took its current name in 2002. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson share the all-time record with four wins each. The recent history has belonged to Formula 1 and NASCAR, with no IndyCar driver taking the trophy in any year since 2015, which is the backdrop that makes Palou's candidacy notable.
Max Verstappen owned the category most recently, winning three straight from 2023 through 2025. Before that run it changed hands every year: Kyle Larson took it in 2022, and Lewis Hamilton won in 2021. The award was not presented in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. NASCAR ran the category in the middle of the decade, with Kyle Busch winning in 2019 and again in 2016, Martin Truex Jr. in 2018, Hamilton in 2017, and Kevin Harvick in 2015. That ledger frames the 2026 question cleanly: the winner will either extend Formula 1's recent hold, return the award to NASCAR through Reddick, or hand IndyCar its first Best Driver in more than a decade.
The Best Driver category is one of several ESPY races trading on the board. Compare it against the Best Male Athlete ESPY market and the Best Female Athlete ESPY market, where the same fan-vote dynamics play out across every sport, and the Best Team ESPY odds for the franchise field. For more motorsport and cross-sport contracts, browse the full sports prediction markets hub.
The 2026 ESPY Best Driver award resolves on July 15, 2026, when the winner is announced live during the ESPYS. The show airs at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and streams on the ESPN app, held at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York. The category is decided by online fan voting, which closes ahead of the broadcast. The market resolves to the single nominee named Best Driver on stage, and every other nominee contract resolves to no. The four nominees are Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris, Alex Palou, and Tyler Reddick. If the ceremony is postponed or the category is not presented, the contract follows each platform event-cancellation rule.
As of July 11, 2026, Kalshi makes Mercedes Formula 1 rookie Kimi Antonelli the front-runner at 55c, ahead of Tyler Reddick and Lando Norris near 23c to 24c, with Alex Palou around 15c. The live board above shows the latest prices.
It resolves on July 15, 2026, when the winner is announced live during the ESPYS on ABC. The four nominees are Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris, Alex Palou, and Tyler Reddick.
The market is listed on Kalshi under the KXESPYS series, and each nominee is also listed on Polymarket. The live board above shows current prices for every nominee.
Alex Palou has the deepest resume: he won the 2025 IndyCar championship, his third straight title, and the Indianapolis 500 in the same year, with 8 wins and 13 podiums in 17 races. Lando Norris won the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship by two points over Max Verstappen.
Watch how fan voting splits between Formula 1 large US audience and the North American series before the ballot closes ahead of the July 15, 2026 broadcast. No Formula 1 driver other than Max Verstappen has won this category since Lewis Hamilton in 2021, and no IndyCar driver has won it since before 2015.