The 2021 racing season is almost upon us and there are some changes being made to the Driver Group Game to hopefully make it easier for everyone to play.
The boss decided to do something about the changes to race weekends and no qualifying. First, he nixed the Bench drivers as it’s pointless to pick a Bench driver with the lock at race time. So, the entry form will have only 4 slots to fill. That way you won’t have to worry about setting any of your lineups until right before the race if that’s what you want to do. Otherwise just put your starters in early in the week and you won’t have to worry about forgetting to set your lineup later and if you still want to change your lineup on race day you can do that too.
The other change is to do with the 8 races with qualifying scheduled:
- Race #1 Daytona 500
- Race # 7 Food City Dirt Race (Bristol Dirt Track)
- Race #14 Circuit of the Americas
- Race #15 Coca-Cola 600
- Race #17 Nashville
- Race #20 Road America
- Race #24 Indy Road Course
- Race #36 at Phoenix
The 7 races (not Daytona 500) with qualifying will have:
- 8AM ET lock on the day of qualifying.
- Entry form will let you select 8 drivers
- (2 A, 4 B, 2 C)
- All 8 drivers will earn qualifying, lap, stage and race points.
- Driver starts are bumped from 8 to 9.
- These are the default settings for all leagues and can still be changed by the league commissioner.
There are a few new drivers, and some old drivers who are in different rides this season. Kyle Larson has been reinstated and will driver the #5 car for Hendrick Motorsports. Erik Jones moves over to the #43 for Richard Petty, Bubba Wallace is in the new #23 team owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan. Finally Chase Briscoe joins Stewart-Haas Racing to fill the seat of the #14 car for the now retired Clint Bowyer.
Feel free to create your own leagues once again or just join as many of the other leagues already created. Commissioners, remember to change the default settings if you so choose to do so. They won’t have the same rules as last season.
Once again I will be writing weekly articles telling you who I am targeting and why for each particular race. My first picks for the Daytona 500 will come after the Duels at Daytona and might be updated after the final practice. Stay tuned to see how this season plays out.
I have started my Guts or Gutless league once again with the same scoring that NASCAR uses for the drivers other than playoff points. I have also started a new league this year which I am calling Guts Opposite Scoring League. In this one the points are just the opposite of the DGG League scoring. I have also updated the driver groups to each only have 6 drivers in them. Pick the drivers you think are going to have the worst finishes in your group each week. A great league for those of you who always seem to pick a driver who ends up having trouble more often than not!
Join one or both and have some fun with me this season.