NASCAR Fantasy Fusion: Be the TopDog in Your League

Be the TopDog in Your Fantasy League:

5 Fantasy NASCAR Picking Tips

The Daytona 500 is almost here. With the new season comes new possibilities not only for the drivers and the race teams, but also for you and your fantasy league. It doesn't matter if you were a dud or a stud last year you can redeem yourself by following five simple tips:

1) Don't pick your favorite driver every week. This should be obvious, but some people get stuck in loyalty issues. Face it your favorite driver is not great at every track, so pick him or her only when he or she meets your other qualifications. You can still root for him.

2) Don't over-think the rules. Each fantasy game places limitations on things like how many times you can pick a driver. Don't try to think through the whole season with a huge strategy. Play it smart week by week and remember fantasy sports is supposed to be fun, so don't fill the experience with drudgery and work.

3) Go for consistency; not weekly winners. Don't make yourself crazy by thinking that you have to pick the race winner every week. Aside from being nearly impossible, you often will do better if go think top 10 performers on a particular track. Just as is the case with the drivers if you are consistent week in and week out, your overall rank will be champion-worthy. However, that didn't work out too well for Carl Edwards though. Hmm.

4) Pick by stats, car drive ability, and practice results. Evaluate potential drivers by a variety of factors: past performance at that track (I go back five years) and look at most top 5s and 10s; car drive ability that weekend - How did the car look at practices? Did you hear any radio communications regarding the engine or any other concerns? How did the car perform during practice and qualifying? Look at all these factors and then add in the very unscientific gut/intuition factor.

5) Don't be swayed by friends' picks. Although I always check a variety of expert sources I usually mess up if I start to share my pick ideas with friends. You don't want to second guess yourself, so share after you finalized your picks.

Fantasy NASCAR is a ton of fun and involves a lot of strategy -- sounds like racing, huh? Dive on in and have fun with it. Check out my weekly column for tips and predictions for the Sprint Cup Series. And as always you can leave comments here or email me at ssfantasyracing@gmail.com.

Here's to an eventful 2012 season!