I’ve been thinking all year of how to handle the Fantasy Chase when it arrives. It became apparent very early in the season there would be WAY more people in the Chase than I anticipated (I was thinking 100 – it turned out to be more than 260).
That’s nice for everyone, but not so nice when you look at the original Chase format we were going to use: A points system with eliminations. Not only would it be difficult to tally points every week, but there could be 75 people still eligible for the championship at Homestead.
I don’t think that’s a good idea. So in true NASCAR fashion, I’m changing the rules in the middle of the game.
The format I came up with is pretty twisted, but it could be very strategic and a lot of fun. I tried to explain it below. Here we go!
RULES:
— You can only pick the 16 Chase drivers, and you can only use each driver once (just like the regular season). Pick one driver for each week of the Chase and submit your picks before Chicagoland.
— Here’s the catch: There are NO POINTS. All you have to do is have your pick survive until the next week. If your pick for a given race does not meet the qualification criteria (see below), you are eliminated from the Chase. You either advance to the next race or don’t.
— How do you survive? By having your pick be among the top-finishing Chase drivers in the race. This will start off easy and get harder and harder as the weeks go on.
— In the first three weeks (Chicagoland, New Hampshire and Dover), your driver must be among the top 12 of the 16 Chase finishers in the race. That’s it. Pick the 10th-best Chase driver and you’re through to the next week. But pick the 15th-best Chase driver, and your whole year is over.
Examples: If you pick Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Chicagoland and he blows an engine, you are eliminated. Done. If you survive Chicagoland but pick Aric Almirola at New Hampshire and he’s the 13th-best Chase driver, you are eliminated. If you pick Kurt Busch and he finishes 15th but is the 11th-best Chase driver, you survive until the next week.
— In the next three weeks (Kansas, Charlotte, Talladega), your driver must be among the top eight finishers of the 12 remaining Chase drivers. If your driver has already been eliminated from the Chase by the time Charlotte arrives, you get zero points and are eliminated.
Example: If Denny Hamlin finishes second at Talladega but was already out of the Chase, you don’t get any credit for the pick.
— In the following three weeks (Martinsville, Texas, Phoenix), your driver must be among the top four finishers of the eight remaining Chase drivers. Again, if your pick for that week is no longer contending for the championship, you’re done.
Example: If you pick Matt Kenseth at Phoenix and he’s only the fifth-best Chase driver, you’re out.
— This sounds complicated, right? But Homestead should be simple: Your Homestead pick must be the highest-finishing driver of all remaining players. Is it possible everyone will be eliminated by then? I doubt it. There will still be some people left, given how you all have performed against expectations this season. If multiple people have the same pick for Homestead, the finalists will be asked to submit tiebreaker drivers for the final race (second, third, fourth, fifth).
—–> UNNECESSARILY COMPLICATED TWIST —–> I still need to reward the regular-season winners (one guy has FIVE wins right now, so he deserves something). So here’s what we’ll do: Each of your regular-season wins will be worth one buffer position to save you in the first round. But you can only use it one time, and it will kick in automatically.
Examples: If you had one win this season and the driver you picked finishes 13th among the Chase drivers, you’ll survive. But if you had five wins this season, you could pick Aric Almirola at Chicagoland and be guaranteed to survive (because you had five positions to give). So it’s essentially a first-week bye for anyone with four or more wins this season.
I can’t wait to see the strategies people come up with. Will you use the top Chase guys early to make sure you advance each week? Or will you try to scrape by in the early races and leave the top contenders for the final few races? I honestly don’t know what the right strategy is, and that’s why this game should be fun.