I’ve started a private group for those wanting to join.
It’s free and it’s through Yahoo Fantasy Sports (NASCAR).
All you need is a Yahoo id (email address) which is free also.
Go to Yahoo.com and click on the sports tab, then find the fantasy section. Depending on if you’re signed up and signed in and what browser you’re using there should be a tab for Fantasy Auto Racing, click on that link.
You’ll then see this message;
Click the signup button and then follow the steps.
The information you’ll need is the following;
Group Name - SDMB Fantasy League
PW - sdmbfl07
GroupID - 35136
That should do it.
Stop in here and let me know if you signed up or if you’re having any trouble doing so and we’ll try to get it worked out for you.
You have till early Friday to get signed up in time for the Daytona 500. And any latecomers can sign up anytime after that, no problems, you’ll just be missing the points from the first race.
When you get signed up you’ll see that there is a Team called the SDMB Fantasy League - that’d be me, so you know you’re in the right group.
No worries, Yahoo has a stats/driver page rolled into the package.
You can see how any driver has done on any track (or type of track) going back 25 years. Mostly you’ll just want to go back 5 years or simply to last year and see how they’ve done.
The rules for selecting drivers for races may seem complicated at first, but if you take the time to read through the rules it should be clear.
Important tip: You can let drivers ‘ride’ from one week to the next, but just remember that each track is different and it may not be wise to do this. Also, you can only start the same driver 9 times during the year. This is where a little strategy comes in to play. You have to save some of the premium (A and B group) drivers for the end of the year when they will be making the push for the chase, or for the actual chase itself, except no-one knows which drivers those will be. There are a ton of changes in NASCAR this year, both in rules and driver/teams/cars.
For example, if you use Jimmy Johnson 7 times in the first 26 weeks you only get to use him for 2 races in the chase (the last 10 races are the Chase for the Cup). This may be OK if he netted you tons of points in the races you started him, but if you didn’t use his starts wisely you could be stuck towards the end.
I did this to myself last year. I was close (in points) to our group leader but I didn’t have any good drivers left for the last few races.
By the time the Chase starts you will have used up the equivolent of 3 A group drivers, 6 B groups drivers, and 3 C group drivers. Basically that’s about 12 drivers that you may not have access to when you’d really like to have them.
You can avoid this by spreading starts more evenly across different drivers, and by trying to pick the sleepers of the week. This is always key, the sleepers. Lots of the C group guys will surprise us this year, just don’t know who and which race.
You’ll also get the occasional dissapointments from your A and B group drivers. You might think you have an awesome lineup for the week only to have two of your drivers DNF the race, or (like someone in our group last year) have all four of them finish 33rd, 34th, 35th, and 36th.
I’m a long time NASCAR fan, but have never done a fantasy league of any kind. Will my novice status be a problem? I don’t mind losing, but would hate to be like the novice at the blackjack table who drives the experts crazy.
For those who haven’t heard: Waltrip’s team really screwed themselves. He was decked 100 driver points; his wife was decked 100 owner points, and his crew chief was fined a record $100,000 and suspended indefinitely.
And the twin qualifiers haven’t even been run yet. Ouch!
Ok, the way Waltrip’s been racing the last couple of years he’ll be lucky to get to the positive side of the number scale by the end of the year. I predict he’ll only start 25 races this year and DNF five of 'em.
He peaked about 4 years ago when him and Dale Jr. were tops in the restrictor plate races, since then, meh.
El Kabong, Mighty Thud Racing? That was you? I did not know that!
Carp of Tomorrow, good one, I’m surprised it wasn’t taken
Anybody know if the docking of points prior to the start of the season will effect the Fantasy racing? Meaning, if Kasey Kahne wins, will he get the full 90 points (or whatever they said was the top score - I can’t look it up at the moment) or will he get 40 because of the docking of 50?
I can’t see how they could dock Fantasy League owners for this, but I’m just checking…
