Simplified, Pinette to headline banquet on Nov. 21

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Following Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, NASCAR will hold its annual Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series Awards Banquet at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel on Monday, Nov. 21 at 6 p.m. ET.

SPEED's Krista Voda and Rick Allen will host the banquet, with the band Simplified unleashing an opening to the show with a live performance. Comedian John Pinette returns to the ceremony, enlivening the festivities with his unique brand of self-deprecating humor.

That's the known. Everything else will be decided in the coming weeks by the competitors -- and the fans.

Voda and Allen will interview the top-five drivers in each series, and even those participants are yet to be determined. Jason Leffler, in sixth, currently trails fifth-place Reed Sorenson by 56 points (and third-place Justin Allgaier and fourth-place Aric Almirola by 61 points) in the Nationwide Series standings. With two races remaining before the banquet, Leffler's deficit is far from insurmountable.

In the Truck Series, sixth-place Todd Bodine trails fifth-place Timothy Peters by 21 points with only one race -- the Ford 200 at Homestead -- remaining. A two-time champion of Bodine's pedigree should not be dismissed.

And as the chances for championship glory near an end, so too do the opportunities for fans to vote for their favorites in the Nationwide and Truck series Most Popular Driver polls. NASCAR.COM has housed online voting for both series since July 20. Voting closes on Thursday, Nov. 17 as the teams from each series close out the year at Homestead-Miami Speedway. To date, fans have cast nearly 180,000 total votes in both series.

Below -- in alphabetical order -- are each series' top five vote-getters coming down to the wire.

Nationwide Series top five as of Oct. 31: Aric Almirola, Trevor Bayne, Elliott Sadler, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kenny Wallace. Cast your vote now!

Truck Series top five as of Oct. 31: Todd Bodine, Ricky Carmichael, Austin Dillon, Ron Hornaday and Nelson Piquet Jr.. Cast your vote now!

In order to be eligible to receive votes this season, drivers must have selected the Nationwide or Truck series to receive championship points. Additionally, drivers must have attempted at least half of each series' races this season.

The 2011 Most Popular Driver for each series will be announced at the combined awards banquet on Nov. 21 at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel. SPEED will broadcast the banquet on Friday, Dec. 2 from 7-9 p.m. ET, which will lead into the Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony at the Wynn Las Vegas.

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