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The 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series season was the 61st season of semi-professional stock car racing in the United States. Beginning at Daytona International Speedway, the season included thirty-five races, which ended with the Ford 300 at Homestead Miami Speedway. During the 2009 off-season, NASCAR announced few calendar changes, including moving the Memphis Motorsports Park race to Road America because a closure of Memphis. Joe Gibbs won the owners' championship, while Brad Keselowski won the drivers' championship during the O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway, two races before the final. Toyota won the manufacturers' championship with 240 points.
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Schedule
Schedule changes: Phoenix and Nashville moved ahead of Texas in April. The spring race at Dover preceded the Charlotte weekends due to the extra week in May before Memorial Day. Because of the closure of the Memphis track, Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois, also hosted a second race in October. Milwaukee was dropped from the schedule due to issues with the promoters, as the Wisconsin State Fair was attempting to hire a new promoter following the previous promoter's sanctioning fee nonpayment. That date went to Road America.
Note: all race dates, names, distances, television and radio stations and start times are subject to change.
The total distance of the season will be 8,599.6 miles (13,839.7 km).
♣ – This race will be run using the new Nationwide Series Car of Tomorrow.
Nationwide Car of Tomorrow
NASCAR announced in October 2009 that the Nationwide Series' Car of Tomorrow will make its debut in 2010 in four races. Those races were the July race at Daytona International Speedway, the August race at Michigan International Speedway, the September race at Richmond International Raceway, and the October race at Charlotte Motor Speedway
The new cars featured the new safety improvements of the Sprint Cup Car of Tomorrow including a larger greenhouse area, however they included a molded front splitter and a classic style spoiler (instead of the Sprint Cup's wing). The new cars also are designed to look more like their street counterparts than the Sprint Cup Car of Tomorrow. Chevrolet continued to run the Impala and Toyota continued to run the Camry nameplates, however Dodge ran the Challenger and Ford will run the Mustang.
USA
ESPN held the broadcast rights for Nationwide Series races. Most events was broadcast on ESPN or ESPN 2 in the United States. Practice and qualifying sessions was broadcast on SPEED or ESPN2 depending on their agreements.
International
The Nationwide Series was broadcast in Australia on Network Ten's Digital sports channel, ONE, in Standard and High Definition. Broadcasts included both full races, typically on a Sunday morning, local time, and 1-hour highlights packages several times during the week. Live flag-to-flag coverage of the races in shown on SPEED for Latin America.
Final standings
1. Brad Keselowski
2. Carl Edwards
3. Kyle Busch
4. Justin Allgaier
5. Paul Menard
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Trevor Bayne
8. Joey Logano
9. Jason Leffler
10. Steve Wallace
More: Official standings