Germain Racing discontinued their Nationwide Series team this season because Michael Annett and sponsor Pilot Travel Centers moved to Rusty Wallace Racing. They, however, ran the No. 15 Toyota at Daytona with Todd Bodine sponsored by Tire Kingdom. Germain transferred the owners points of the No. 15 over to Rick Ware Racing who ran the No. 15 Ford for rookie Timmy Hill starting at Phoenix. Hill could not run Daytona because he was under 18.
Roush Fenway Racing discontinued the No. 98 car due to Paul Menard leaving for KHI. The owner points were sold to Go Green Racing.
Due to a lack of sponsorship, Baker Curb Racing suspended all operations indefinitely for the season, though there are reports of the team putting together a car for Canadian J. R. Fitzpatrick for Daytona
Stratus Racing Group failed to run a car during the season because owner/driver Derrike Cope moved back to Jay Robinson Racing after a 4-year hiatus from the team.
Pastrana-Waltrip Racing intended to field Ryan Truex for 20 races for ROTY honors, but the team was forced to pull out of the championship due to a lack of sponsorship.
2010 NASCAR K&N East Series Champion Ryan Truex was intended to run 10–20 races with Pastrana-Waltrip Racing, and was the early favorite to win Rookie of the Year. However, sponsorship issues sidelined Truex's bid for the title, forcing him to sit out most of the season. He was later tabbed by Joe Gibbs Racing to drive their No. 20 Toyota late in the season. Blake Koch, returning to NASCAR after sitting 2010 out due to losing sponsorship, was to drive the No. 81 alongside veteran Donnie Neuenberger. However, Koch picked up sponsorship from Daystar Television Network, which eventually expanded to sponsoring Koch for the full year. Rick Ware Racing development driver Timmy Hill was 17 years old when the Nationwide Series hit Daytona, and thus was not approved to run until the next week in Phoenix. Jennifer Jo Cobb's rookie season was hampered by a fallout with 2nd Chance Motorsports owner Rick Russell over starting and parking, and she briefly moved to Rick Ware Racing before moving her own team up to Nationwide with limited success. Charles Lewandoski intended to make ten races for TriStar Motorsports, but ended up running some start and park efforts with Key Motorsports.
The RotY lead would be contested mostly by Hill and Koch, who were tied heading into the season finale at Homestead. However, Hill prevailed over Koch and became the youngest Rookie of the Year in series history.
The fall race at Auto Club Speedway was discontinued due to low sales and was replaced by the aforementioned Chicagoland June race.
Changes
Rule changes
The 2011 series seen a rule change aimed at limiting the impact of drivers racing in multiple series. According to a story reported by NASCAR.com on January 11, 2011, drivers were allowed to earn points in only one of NASCAR's three national series in a given season. This is enforced on NASCAR's annual license application form, which now requires drivers to indicate the series championship for which they wish to compete. This had the effect of preventing full-time Cup drivers from competing for the Nationwide Series title, although they were still able to run in all Nationwide races. Ineligible drivers still accumulated owner points for team standings that determine the Owner's Championship and exemptions (top 30 full-time teams that have attempted every race are guaranteed to start the race).[13] This and other changes were officially announced by NASCAR president and CEO Brian France on January 26.[14]
France also announced major changes to the points system in all three national touring series. Effective during the season, the winner of each race received 43 points, with a one-point decrease for each successive finishing position (42 points for second, 41 for third, and so on). The race winner also received three bonus points, with single bonus points being awarded to all drivers who led a lap and to the driver who led the most laps. This means that a race winner was assured of either 47 or 48 points, while a second-place finisher earned at most 44.[14]
The closed-loop fueling system previously introduced in the Truck Series, which eliminates the catch can man from the pit crew, debuted in all three national series.[14]
1 – Post entry, driver and owner did not score points.
2 – Conway originally registered for Sprint Cup points, but switched to Nationwide at Nashville.
Kyle Busch was suspended from competing in the second Texas race due to crashing out championship contender Ron Hornaday Jr. during a caution at the 2011 WinStar World Casino 350K earlier that weekend. He was replaced by Denny Hamlin.
