Welcome to the "Driver Group Game" where you manage your own fantasy team of NASCAR Monster Energy Cup drivers.
Each race week, before qualifying begins, you select an eight-driver team from among three groups of eligible drivers. Then, before the race, you will decide which four 'Starter' drivers will race for your team. So, the challenge is not only to pick the best team race in and race out, but also to manage your team in a way that produces the highest possible fantasy score.
NASCAR's new policy is that the race winner, second-place finisher and a third car selected at random will be inspected at the track immediately following the race. Within an estimated 90 minutes, officials will be able to determine the legality of these three racecars. Should one fail inspection, the teams result will be disqualified, resulting in a last-place finish. Each other driver would then move up one spot in the finishing order.
As a fantasy NASCAR player myself, I know how ready I am to see my score as soon as possible after the race. Entries will be initially scored according to the Unofficial Results. It is yet to be seen how the NASCAR Media Group decides to release results. Historically, the Unofficial Results are posted to their site within 30 minutes after the race. Then sometime the next day they post the Official Results. In light of the 90-minute deadline being imposed on post-race inspection, they may decide to not post the results until they are Official. Still, the plan is to get the leagues scored with the (first results I can find) and then if things change as a result of an infraction I will re-score with the new race results.
When you register or start the new season you are placed in our default league, DGG League.
You can choose to play the entry available to you in our league or not. 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 a apples-to-apples representation of the default leagues scoring.
As stated above, every league starts out with these default rules. We have made a couple modifications to last years rules which are listed below. More detail is given in their section further down in the rules.
Driver Group Game is a weekly game that runs the full 36 race 2019 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup season. It begins with race #1, the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 17, 2019 and concludes after race #36, the Ford EcoBoost 400, on Sunday, November 17, 2019.
Non-points races ('The Clash' at Daytona and the 'All-Star Race' at Charlotte Motor Speedway) are not included in the game. Take these races off and enjoy the action!
In addition, the full-season will be divided into three segments.
Your team entry will have a score column for each segment of the season, as well as a fourth column that shows the overall season score earned by your team.
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 our site.
You can join the game anytime from when the game opens for entries until the final deadline for the last race of the 2019 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.
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.
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, we may add additional drivers to a group at any point during the season.
Use the check box next to each driver on your 'My Entry' page to choose your team entry for each race week. You must choose an eight-driver team that includes two drivers from the A Group, four from the B Group, and two from the C Group.
The 'Bench' spots are important because each team will accumulate points for drivers who qualify in the five best starting positions after qualifying, regardless of whether they are in the 'Starter' or 'Bench' position.
Select drivers by checking the box next to their name.
When you have finished setting your team lineup click the Save Team button to save your entry.
Each driver in the Driver Group Game can be in the 'Starter' position of your team in no more than eight races. For the purposes of this game, a driver must be in the 'Starter' position for a race (not only during qualifying) in order to be charged with a race start. Likewise, a driver who is on your team but stays in the 'Bench' position during the race does not get charged for a race start.
Once a driver has reached the eight-race limit, he will no longer accumulate any fantasy points for your team even if he occupies a 'Starter' or 'Bench' roster spot. This limit does not change no matter when you join the game.
Your driver's start totals will not reset at the segment divisions of the season. If you start your driver eight 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.
If a driver is on your roster in a 'Starter' position for a given race but does not drive in that real-life event, he will not be charged with a race start. But, you will also not earn any points from him. The number of races each driver has started for you will be listed along with all of his other stats.
The deadline for picking new drivers for the upcoming race is 8:00 AM Eastern on the day of qualifying. (7:00 AM Central / 6:00 AM Mountain / 5:00 AM Pacific) It is noted as 'PARTIAL LOCK' on your 'Dashboard' and 'My Entry' pages.
The deadline to change the status of a driver on your team from 'Bench' to 'Starter' is around the scheduled start time of each race. 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 we have published, the deadline to change the status of a driver on your team from 'Bench' to 'Starter' will also change accordingly.
In the event that NASCAR changes the start time of the race to a later time (or day) than we have published, the deadline to change the status of a driver on your team from 'Bench' to 'Starter' will not change. Entries will not be opened back up after they have locked.
The drivers for the A, B and C Groups are divided up as follows:
Through the course of the race week there are a number of things that happen with your team entry. Here is a visual summary of events.
8:00 AM EST
Morning of Qualifying: Drivers locked. Cannot add or remove from team.
View Others Picks: Viewing other players picks on the league page or clicking their profile link is active.
...within minutes of posting qualifying results
Update Qualifying Positions: Update qualifying positions displayed on your team entry.
Calculate Qualifying Bonus Points: If any of the drivers on your team qualify in the 1st through 5th positions you earn fantasy points. 10 points for the pole. 5 for 2nd. 3 for 3rd. 2 for 4th. 1 for 5th.
...designated 'FULL LOCK' time listed on 'My Entry'.
Driver Positions are Set: You can no longer move a driver between 'Starter' and 'Bench' on your team entry.
...within a few hours after race.
Race & Bonus Points: Update race points, stage points and laps led data on your team entry.
Team Entry Rankings: Calculate rankings.
...usually mid-morning the day after the race.
Verify Calculated Results: Verify that Unofficial and Official race results released by NASCAR are the same. Make updates as needed. Scores set as Official.
...within a few hours after race.
Race & Bonus Points: Update race points, stage points and laps led data on your team entry.
Team Entry Rankings: Calculate rankings.
...usually mid-morning the day after the race.
Verify Calculated Results: Verify that Unofficial and Official race results released by NASCAR are the same. Make updates as needed. Scores set as Official.
'Starter' and 'Bench' drivers are eligible to earn qualifying bonus points. Because qualifying for the Daytona 500 is broken up over two days, qualifying points will not be awarded for the Daytona 500. In the event that qualifying is cancelled whereby the race line-up is set by points, there will be no qualifying bonus points awarded.
Only 'Starter' drivers are eligible to earn lap bonus points.
Only 'Starter' drivers are eligible to earn stage position 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.
Only 'Starter' drivers are eligible to earn finish position points.
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.
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 we've had time to process the scoring.
Standings on private league pages display points for all team entries in the league.