Nascar and yahoo announce games changes

​Instead of a driver preview, I wanted to comment today on recent announcements by NASCAR.com and Yahoo regarding their fantasy racing games.

Yahoo is eliminating its fantasy NASCAR game altogether.  I played in Yahoo leagues for the last 5-6 years.  I liked the 10-race per season limit on each driver because it made you have to take a season long approach every week.  But I thought some of the A/B/C classifications were arbitrary and I didn't like having to set my weekly roster prior to practice.

NASCAR.com announced a complete redo of its NASCAR Fantasy Live.  In years past, it was a pure salary cap game where you could use a driver as many times as you wanted each year and simply had to be within a $100 salary cap each week.  The new version of NASCAR Fantasy Live will launch February 5, so we won't know all the details until then.  But from the introductory e-mail, it looks like the salary cap is gone.  Players will now select five drivers for their lineup and there will be a 10-race per season limit on each driver.  In other words, you can no longer use Kyle Busch every week.  You can use him no more than ten times in the year.  There is also reference to a "garage driver" who can be inserted into your lineup if one of your starting five falters.  We'll have to wait for the details to see how that works.  It sounds pretty odd to me.

For scoring, it looks like the system will be simplified.  Gone, apparently, are the 1/2 points for laps led and fastest laps as well as the bonuses for positions gained.  Instead, it looks like there will be bonus points for rostering the pole winner, stage winners, race winner and winning manufacturer.  Again, we'll need to see the details to fully understand and comment further.

In the end, it looks like NASCAR.com has adopted numerous facets of the now defunct Yahoo game.  Specifically, the elimination of a salary cap and the 10-race per season limit on each driver.  It also seems like the time for locking your roster will be much earlier in the race weekend.  In the past, I liked that you didn't need to set your NASCAR.com lineup until after all practices and qualifying were over.  It looks like those days are over.

More thoughts to come after the game is formally launched on February 5.  Here is the summary of the new game circulated by NASCAR.

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