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Every year, fans of every sport join fantasy
leagues, where they “play” against other league members
using the stats of the real professional athletes. NASCAR
is no different. Racing fans put together “teams” of
drivers, and win or lose each week based on the results of
those drivers.
I take part each year in a league put
together at NASCAR.com called “The Ultimate Fantasy
Challenge”. When you join, you are placed in a “league”
with five other fns. The six of you then “draft” the
drivers, until you each have four team members. At this
point, you already have had to take some guesses. You have
to guess which drivers are going to do well consistently
during the season, and win you the most points. You could
base your guesses on how the drivers did the previous year,
but that doesn’t always follow through. Plus, there are
rookies that you have no previous season to go by. And when
a driver changes teams, you really have no clear indications
of what kind of success they’ll have. And even those that
are staying with the same team may not do as well as the
year before. You basically have to pick four of your
favorite drivers, and hope they have good years.
Then each week, you’re pitted against one of
the other five members of your league. You have to pick
three of your drivers as “active”. The points earned that
week by those three drivers are added up, and compared to
the three drivers for the player you are up against. The
one with the most points wins that week. So how much of
this is based on lucky guesswork? Well, the only
decision you have to make is who to bench. And any given
week, that particular driver could end up having their best
finish of the year, meaning you guessed wrong. Or they
could have their worst finish, making you look like a
genius. But either way, it’s almost all guesswork.
Last year, I won my fantasy league by quite a
wide margin. I was lucky in the draft, and started the
season with a couple of drivers who were somewhat “iffy”,
but they ended up having seasons filled with consistent
finishes.
This year is a different story. My team
seems to be plagued by bad luck. Several times this year,
my drivers were in positions near the end of the race that
would bring me a victory. But in the closing laps, or on
the final round of pit stops, one of my drivers would have a
problem – running out of fuel (twice!), being caught up in a
wreck, losing an engine, or receiving pit-road penalties,
that would cause them to lose just enough points that I
would end up losing that week.
So did I guess wrong and bench the wrong
driver each week? Well, not really. My benched driver
hasn’t done much better than my active drivers.
Did I guess wrong during the draft and pick
up not-so-good drivers? Not really. (My team consists of
the defending champion, two Rookie of the Year candidates,
and one driver who was in the Chase last season)
So where did I go wrong between this year and
last year? I didn’t really. Because I don’t have control
over what “my” drivers do on the track. I’m not in the
pits. I’m not in the car. I’m certainly not in the owners’
seats. I can only do what every other fan does: root on
the drivers on my team, and hope.
The rest is all a matter of luck.
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