Overview
Welcome to the Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet "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.
Length of Season
Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet Driver Group Game is a weekly game that runs the full 36 race 2018 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup season. It begins with race #1, the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 18, 2018 and concludes after race #36, the Ford EcoBoost 400, on Sunday, November 18, 2018.
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!
Spring, Summer and Playoff Segments
In addition, the full-season will be divided into three segments.
- Spring: Begins with race #1, the Daytona 500 (February 18, 2018) at Daytona International Speedway and ends with race #13, the Coca-Cola 600 (May 27, 2018) at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
- Summer: Begins with race #14, the Pocono 400 (June 03, 2018) at Pocono Raceway and ends with race #26, the Big Machine Brickyard 400 (September 09, 2018) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
- Playoffs: Begins with race #27, the South Point 400 (September 16, 2018) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and ends with race #36, the Ford EcoBoost 400 (November 18, 2018) at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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.
Joining the Game
The Driver Group Game is free to play. A paid subscription to Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet is not required.
For purposes of playing the game and creating a team entry you will need to create an account on our site. You can select the free 'Fan' subscription or either of the two paid yearly subscriptions. Paid yearly subscriptions do not auto-renew. If your paid yearly subscription expires during the course of the game it will automatically change to the free 'Fan' account and your gameplay will continue unimpeded.
You can join the game anytime from when the game opens for entries until the final deadline for the last race of the 2018 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.
Joining or Creating a 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.
If you don't have many players ready to sign up, join one of our "Fans of" Leagues and compete with fantasy NASCAR fans from around the world. Or, create a Public league for others to join with you.
All players create only one team entry of drivers within the Driver Group Game. However, that team entry may be included in as many Public or Private leagues as you desire.
Weekly Team Entry Does Carry Over
NOTE: After much great discussion in the blog (and scads of emails sent to me from others) about team carry-over this portion of the rules is being modified from NOT carrying over each week to DOES carry over.
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. You can even select drivers for any future race at any time. This lets you plan in advance the drivers you want to use in the event you are unable to place them the week of the race.
The Driver Group Game also features a tool to show you exactly where you have placed each driver for past or future races to help you manage your future entries within the Maximum Start restriction. Nonetheless, to accomodate the unforeseen reasons that might cause even the most diligent player to miss setting their team, your line-up from the previous week will continue to advance forward. If a driver on the 'carry over' team runs out of starts, you will no longer receive any points for them.
Selecting Drivers for Your Team Entry
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 C Group drivers 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. Selections are saved automatically. There is no 'save' button to click.
Maximum Starts
NOTE: After much great discussion in the blog (and scads of emails sent to me from others) about maximum starts for drivers this portion of the rules is being modified from 7 maximum starts to 9 maximum starts per driver.
Each driver in the Driver Group Game can be in the 'Starter' position of your team in no more than nine 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 nine-race limit, he will no longer accumulate any fantasy points for your team even if he occupies a 'Starter' 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 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.
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.
Deadlines
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).
The deadline to change the status of a driver on your team from 'Bench' to 'Starter' is 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 the 'My Entry' page for that race.
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.
View the Driver Group Game Roster Lock Times.
Scoring (Qualifying)
'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.
- Pole = 10 points
- 2nd = 5 points
- 3rd = 3 points
- 4th = 2 points
- 5th = 1 point
Scoring (Laps Led and Most Laps Led)
Only 'Starter' drivers are eligible to earn lap bonus points.
- Most Laps Led = 5 points
- Lead a Lap = 5 points
Scoring (Finish position)
Only 'Starter' drivers are eligible to earn finish position points.
- Winner = 100 points
- 2nd = 90 points
- 3rd = 88 points (-2 points for every finish thereafter)
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.
Standings
All applicable driver statistics are updated following qualifying and after each race. All weekly fantasy point totals, group standings, and leaderboards will be updated every Monday morning.
The Overall Leaders table displays the Top-500 teams.
Standings on private league pages display points for all team entries in the league.
Commissioner Tools
- Invite Friends: This tool provides you with an easy way to invite a group of friends to join your private league.
- Lock Teams: This tool allows you to prevent any group member from posting messages.
- Remove Teams: This tool allows you to delete any group member.
- Change Password: This tool allows you to change the group password.
