Fantasy NASCAR -- Banger's Lava Lamps

The 2nd Season of Fantasy NASCAR Racing through Yahoo! Fantasy Sports is underway. Instead of just three participants last year, now I've expanded the field to six (including myself and some of my current and former students).

After last weekend's race at Atlanta, it has taken me a while to get to the top of the standings. I'm clearly having a better beginning-part of the season that I had last year -- making the right picks, even the ones who I don't "start" and those guys end up winning the pole or a top starting position for extra bonus points.

At the beginning of the season, I added Nicole and Meghan, two juniors who I had the privledge in my previous classes to be added to the roster. I figured, along with Ashley and Molly, to be "fresh meat" to pick the bad drivers and the rest of us would run away with the points. Instead, my little plan backfired, as the first couple of weeks Nicole (had stayed at the top through Weeks 1 through 3) and Meghan held her own.

The biggest downfall is probably certain people, like the seasoned veterans Ashley and Molly -- totally forgetting to make their picks! As you can see by the points in the picture, they are behind, but like Molly told me today, she's staging her comeback.

So far after Atlanta, we have this:

1. Tony: 1,087 points
2. Nicole: 1,037 points
3. Meghan: 831 points
4. Ashley: 584 points
5. Molly: 424 points
6. Doug: 200 points

Doug's a new-comer, just starting the league at Atlanta. He asked me today if "200 points was any good..." but it's mediocre. I had a 355-point effort in Atlanta and that's DAMN GOOD.

Next week: Bristol, the best 1/2 mile concrete track on the planet. But, it's also the start of NASCAR running its new car ... the so-called Car Of Tomorrow (COT), so who knows. Everything could get screwed up as far as my picks go, but I'm going to pick the obvious favorites and see what happens.

Sidenote: in the other Fantasy League I'm in (the official Ryan Newman Fan Club), I'm also leading the points standings there, but only by 10 points.