Welcome to the "Driver Group Game"! Manage your own fantasy team of NASCAR Cup Series drivers each race week by selecting a driver team from among three groups of eligible drivers.
If you want to have a team that competes against a large group of players be sure to join the DGG League.
Your DGG League entry is the one that makes you eligible for Hall of Fame Awards. Since commissioners are able to change their league settings - even down to the races and drivers, not just scoring - those league entries are not an apples-to-apples representation of the default leagues scoring.
Driver Group Game is a weekly game that runs the full 36 race 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. It begins with race #1, the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 13, 2021 and concludes after race #36 at Phoenix Raceway.
Non-points races ('The Clash' and 'Duels' at Daytona and the 'All-Star Race' at Texas Motor Speedway) are not included in the game. Take your owner hat off and enjoy the action!
The full-season will be divided into three segments.
The Driver Group Game is free to play.
For purposes of playing the game and creating a team entry you will need to sign up on my site.
You can join the game anytime from when the game opens for entries until the final deadline for the last race of the 2021 NASCAR race season. The game is comprised of weekly contests that begin on Monday and conclude on Sunday, unless Monday racing is required to decide a real-life race winner.
Join as many leagues as you like! There is no need to create additional registrations on the site because each league you play in has an entry for you unique to that league.
Create a Private League and personally invite only those friends or colleagues you want to join. To join someone else's Private League, you must get the League ID# and password from the league founder. Or, create a Public league for others to join with you.
You remain in leagues season after season. There is no need to create a new league each year.
Your weekly team entry does carry over from race-to-race. If you're going to play the game to win, it makes sense to set the optimum line-up each race. But, even the most diligent player could have some real life event that causes them to miss setting their team. As such, your line-up from the previous week will advance forward to the current race. If, however, a driver on the 'carry over' team is out of eligible usage because their starts have reached 0, you will no longer receive any points for them.
Weekly email reminders are sent each week.
Available drivers are broken into three driver groups. A, B and C. Placement of drivers in these three groups is determined prior to the season based on their level of past or predicted future performance. Once in the A, B or C driver group a driver will not be moved to another group at any time during the season. However, I may add additional drivers to a group at any point during the season.
Select drivers on your entry page to choose your team entry for each race week. You must choose either a four-driver team for races without qualifying (or an eight-driver team for races that do). This is one (or two) drivers from the A Group, two (or four) from the B Group, and one (or two) from the C Group.
When you have finished setting your team lineup click the Save Team button to save your entry.
If a driver on your locked roster gets substituted with another driver you will still earn the points they earn. The original driver will be charged with a start.
If a driver replaces another driver in his normal vehicle for one or more races, the replacement driver (who could be in a driver group different from the original driver) must be selected for your team entry and will incur a driver usage.
The number of races each driver has started for you will be listed along with all of his other stats.
Each driver in the Driver Group Game can be used on your team in no more than nine races.
Once a driver has reached the nine-race limit, he will no longer accumulate any fantasy points for your team even if he occupies a spot on your entry. This limit does not change no matter when you join the game.
Your driver's start totals DO NOT RESET at the segment divisions of the season. If you start your driver nine times during the first segment of the season, he will not be eligible to earn ANY fantasy points (qualifying, finish or lap points) for the remainder of the season.
(This section revised 1/31/2021)
In case you didn't know, Only eight Cup Series events to be held with practice, qualifying in 2021.
Here is a short video explaining the ways each option works in the game.
Options for Qualifying in Leagues
I want to carry on the unique aspect of the game in how qualifying is incorporated. The 2020 NASCAR season, under COVID-19 restrictions, brought many challenges to NASCAR, teams and drivers. It also eliminated qualifying...which made filling in those 4 Bench drivers each race week pretty pointless.
Capitalizing on qualifying points is what has always helped the good players to that 99% ranking at Yahoo!. Without those bonus qualifying points what kind of unique fantasy NASCAR game are we?
I first learned how important qualify points were when I met Marlon Clark. He showed me a spreadsheet detailing his season-long accumulation of qualifying points. Each week, this focus on qualifying points put him more and more ahead of the competition and - his reason - why he scored in the 99% at Yahoo! every year.
Your League. Your Rules. Right?
I've adjusted the league settings and put all existing leagues under the default settings for this.
Commissioners can choose to not use qualifying in their league at all.
NASCAR designated seven Qualifying Races (7, 14, 15, 17, 20, 24 and 36) to use start positions set by traditional qualifying.
The DGG League uses the DEFAULT setting.
The 'DEFAULT' setting with Extreme Qualifying Points.
Commissioners can set their leagues to use the Qualifying Races to be Extreme Qualifying Points Races that don't charge 'Bench' drivers with a usage. You'd select the default settings but adjust the points awarded for qualifying.
My original thought was since we went from 35 qualifying races to 7, we could multiply the amount of qualifying points awarded by five (since now each single qualifying race represented five no qualifying races). This way, things stay the 'way they were' but offers, once again, the unique aspect that qualifying brings when all races have qualifying.
To accomplish this, commissioners should change their Qualifying Bonus Points from the default 10-points to 50-points for pole, 5-points to 35-points for qualifying second on down to fifth.
Again, not a requirement, just a suggestion. It's your league and your rules.
The 'TWIST' setting with Extreme Fantasy Points.
Commissioners can set their leagues to use the Qualifying Races to be Extreme Points Races with the right setting selection.
Choosing 'Yes' to Use "Qualifying Races" and 'No' to "Award Race Points and Charge Usage to the 4 Starters Only" will essentially result in a players total points as if two races were run in one. These bonus races are a great opportunity to catch-up or extend on points.
Each week your team entry fully locks at the posted race start time.
Leagues that use the seven Qualifying Races will have their entry form lock at 8AM ET (7:00 AM Central / 6:00 AM Mountain / 5:00 AM Pacific) the day of qualifying. In the event that NASCAR changes the plan to have these races include qualifying, for purposes of the game, entries will still lock at 8AM ET the originally designated day as qualifying. In the event that qualifying is cancelled whereby the race line-up is set by points, there will be no qualifying bonus points awarded.
The deadlines for your entry for each league is posted in your main dashboard and on your league entry. Always refer to it for the upcoming lock times.
Scheduled start is listed on your entry form. Please note that the scheduled race time will likely differ from the actual start time of the race. Rosters are locked based on the start time displayed on your 'Dashboard' and 'My Entry' pages for that race. It is noted as 'FULL LOCK'.
In the event that NASCAR changes the start time of the race to an earlier time than I have published, then entry forms will lock accordingly.
In the event that NASCAR changes the start time of the race to a later time (or day) than I have published, the deadline to change your drivers will not change. Entries will not remain open or be re-opened back up after they have locked.
The drivers for the A, B and C Groups are divided up as follows:
The seven races listed above as Qualifying Races give your drivers the opportunity to earn qualifying bonus points.
Our stages match NASCAR stages. Historically, there are two stages at all races except the Charlotte 600 which has three. To clarify, 'stages' does not include the final stage of the race which results in the checkered flag. Rather, 'stages' are the segments of the race that NASCAR refers to as 'stages' and end with a yellow flag.
If a race is officially canceled, no fantasy team will receive any points for that race. All other scoring rules stay the same. If qualifying or a race is delayed or postponed, no points will be awarded until it is completed. If qualifying is canceled and the starting grid is determined by other means, no qualifying bonus points will be awarded.
(ADDED 06/21/2021): Finish Position is the driver's standing order at the end of the race. If a driver is disqualified as a result of post-race inspection, it will not change the driver's Stage Positions, Finishing Position or Laps Led.
All applicable driver statistics are updated following qualifying and after each race. All weekly fantasy point totals, group standings, and Leaderboards will be updated as soon as data is available after the race and I've had time to process the scoring.
Standings on private league pages display points for all team entries in the league.