The 2018 Fantasy NASCAR season will be a lot different from what we have seen in the past. Two of the most popular games (Yahoo Fantasy Auto Racing and Fox Fantasy Auto Racing) decided not to offer their fantasy games for the upcoming season. This left most people in the Fantasy NASCAR community in shock.
Have no fear fantasy players; there is a new game for you. FantasyRacingCheatSheet.com decided to step up and create a replacement for the Yahoo Fantasy Auto Racing game. The game will be called the “Driver Group Game”. It was created by Darren Fauth from Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet.
The game will have similar rules as the Yahoo Fantasy Auto Racing game had in the past. Drivers will be placed into three groups (Group A, Group B and Group C). Group A had 9 drivers in the Yahoo Fantasy Auto Racing game. The Driver Group Game will only have 8. The numbers of drivers in Groups B and Groups C will remain the same (16 Drivers in Group B and the remaining drivers in Group C).
Here are the group setups for the 2018 season…
Group A
Brad Keselowski
Denny Hamlin
Jimmie Johnson
Joey Logano
Kevin Harvick
Kyle Busch
Kyle Larson
Martin Truex Jr.
Group B
AJ Allmendinger
Aric Almirola
Austin Dillon
Chase Elliott
Clint Bowyer
Daniel Suarez
Erik Jones
Jamie McMurray
Kasey Kahne
Kurt Busch
Paul Menard
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Ryan Blaney
Ryan Newman
Trevor Bayne
Ty Dillon
Group C
Alex Bowman
William Byron
Chris Buescher
Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr.
Michael McDowell
David Ragan
Matt Dibenedetto
Cole Whitt
Brendan Gaughan
B.J. Mcleod
Ray Black Jr.
Other drivers…
Scoring for the Driver Group Game will be similar to the Yahoo Fantasy Auto Racing game. Here is a breakdown of the scoring rules for the Driver Group Game:
Qualifying Bonus Points
Pole Winner = 10 Points
2nd-Place Qualifier = 5 Points
3rd Place Qualifier = 3 Points
4th Place Qualifying = 2 Points
5th Place Qualifier = 1 Point
(The only change from Yahoo is that the Driver Group Game will award bonus points for the top-5 qualifiers instead of the top 4.)
Lap Led Bonus Points
5 Points for Leading a Lap
5 Additional Points for Leading the Most Laps
(The Yahoo Fantasy Auto Racing Game awarded 10 bonus points for leading a lap and 10 additional bonus points for leading the most laps. There will not be as big of an emphasis on leading laps in the Driver Group Game as there was in the Yahoo Fantasy Auto Racing Game).
Finishing Position Scoring
1st = 100 Points
2nd = 90 Points
3rd = 88 Points
4th = 86 Points
5th = 84 Points
… And each lower placed driver earns 2 less points.
(This is a BIG change from the Yahoo Fantasy Auto Racing Game. Yahoo awarded 90 Points for 1st and -2 points for every driver after that. The Driver Group Game awards 10 more points for the race winner over the 2nd-place driver. This means it will be more important this season to select the race winner)
Allocations
Darren opened a discussion about allocations in the “Blog Post” on the FantasyRacingCheatSheet.com site. The site initially posted that each driver could be used 7 times throughout the season. Darren decided to keep the game at 9 allocations for the 2018 season.
Darren sent an email to the fans of the Driver Group Game stating:
“This season may not be the best time to change things up. Let’s enjoy what many of us enjoyed for 18 years…with the same rules that gave us 9 maximum starts per driver and the grace of weekly team carry over.
Now I hear the jeers from all you diehard competitors! I do.
Let’s figure out a way to tweak it for next season. Hopefully in a way that lets leagues decide which alternative rules they want to use. Then all of us seven-start-no-carry-over advocates can do the equivalent of “beating you up with one-arm tied behind our back” and out-score the 9 start carry over players.
But this season, let’s have the goal of a game that we can bring others in to play that is as user-friendly as the Yahoo one was.”
Create a Group
Fantasy NASCAR players who sign up for the Driver Group Game will be able to create a private group and play with their friends.
The game is scheduled to launch in early February. You can add your name to the mailing list to be notified when the game has been released.
Our Endorsement
FantasyRacingTips.com gives the Driver Group Game our full endorsement. I have been in contact with Darren and I think what he did with the Driver Group Game is fabulous and it fills a HUGE void left by the departure of the Yahoo Fantasy Auto Racing Game.
FantasyRacingTips.com will be providing our picks for this game and will continue to be the best source for Fantasy NASCAR advice to our fans.
We encourage you to sign up for the Driver Group Game and come back to FantasyRacingTips.com to get the advice to beat your competition in the 2018 season.
There will be a FantasyRacingTips Private League created once the game is launched. The details for signing up for our Private League will be posted in the Members Forum on this site. We will send out a notification to the members when the league i created.
If you need any further advice with your team, look for me on Twitter @MrFantasyNASCAR
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