It’s another showdown between the rising stars and seasoned veterans of the NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR’s seven touring series, as voting for the Most Popular Driver Awards begins, Thursday, October 9. Additionally, fans can also vote on their top NASCAR Nationwide Series moment. Regan Smith looks to defend his NASCAR Nationwide Series Most Popular Driver title, while the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is guaranteed to have a new winner. Fans can vote once per day online for the Most Popular Driver Awards at www.NASCAR.com/mostpopulardriver, and for the NASCAR Nationwide Series top moment at www.NASCAR.com/nnstopmoment. Voting is open and runs through Friday, Nov. 14 for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Saturday, Nov. 15 for the NASCAR Nationwide Series, prior to the respective season finale races at Homestead-Miami Speedway during Ford Championship Weekend. Voting for the NASCAR touring series will also conclude Saturday, Nov. 15. The winners will be announced at the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Awards. The combined postseason gala will take place at the Trump National Doral Miami on Monday, Nov. 17. To be eligible to receive Most Popular Driver votes, drivers must have selected either the NASCAR Nationwide Series or NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to receive 2014 championship driver points. Additionally, for all voting, drivers must have attempted at least half of their respective series races this season. Selected by a panel of NASCAR industry representatives, here are the top NASCAR Nationwide Series moments from the past seven seasons that fans can vote on starting today:
Aug. 1, 2009 – Brad Keselowski wins the inaugural NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway, taking home the Dash 4 Cash bonus in front of 60,000 fans.
July 3, 2010 – The new NASCAR Nationwide car makes its race debut at Daytona. Driving a blue-and-yellow #3 Wrangler Chevrolet reminiscent of his father’s car, Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins the Subway Jalapeno 250 Powered by Coca-Cola.
March 5, 2011 – Danica Patrick finishes fourth at Las Vegas, marking the best finish by a female driver in NASCAR national series history.
Aug. 6, 2011 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Carl Edwards wreck coming across the finish line at Iowa Speedway battling for the win. Stenhouse would emerge as the winner, earning his first victory of the season.
Aug. 26, 2011 – Kyle Busch’s victory at Bristol Motor Speedway moves him past Mark Martin as the series’ all-time wins leader (50). Busch has since upped his win total to 69.
Nov. 5, 2011 – At Texas Motor Speedway, Kenny Wallace supplants Jason Keller as the series’ all-time starts leader (520).
Nov. 16, 2013 – Austin Dillon wins the series championship by a scant three points over Sam Hornish Jr. It was Dillon’s second national series championship in three years.
April, 2014 – Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Chase Elliott wins consecutive races at Texas Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway, becoming the youngest driver to win back-to-back races in series history.
Aug. 16, 2014 – Chris Buescher claims his first career win in the Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 at Mid-Ohio, while honoring six year-old patient champion Luke Benner.(NASCAR)
