This is the first of a 4 part series leading up to the upcoming Nascar season.  For the rest of the series check out the Nascar Racing Pools post.  This series is brought to you thanks to Nascar Pools Online.

The largest, most popular types of Nascar pool have the entrants pick their teams of drivers at the start of the season, and that is their team for the duration of the year.  They tend to be the largest thanks to the support of the casual fan.  Not everyone has the time to keep up with different picks for 36 weekends out of the year, so to only have to make picks once works out quite well.  We’ll take a look at some of the more popular formats for season pick pools.

Salary Cap Nascar Pools

Each driver is given a salary, relative to their performance in previous seasons.  Entrants then select a team of a specified number of drivers (usually 7 or 8), staying within the allotted salary cap.  This allows everyone the chance to pick their favourite drivers and have a well balanced team.  To win, you still have to find some value, and pick a couple drivers that will outperform their ‘salary’ level.  We usually try to use a cap of 100 or 1000 and have the highest possible salary somewhere between 20 and 25% of the cap.  The lower  you make the salaries, the better teams your entrants are likely to have, and the more competitive the league will be.  The higher the salaries, the tougher it gets, and it becomes more likely that the ‘experts’ that follow the sport the closest will win.  The best leagues find a good balance between the two.

Box Nascar Pools

Drivers are grouped in boxes, and each entrant has to select their drivers according to the boxes.  How you divide the drivers up is entirely up to you.  There are a number of ways to do so, and there is no right or wrong way.  The easiest is to have boxes of 4 drivers, and each entrant picks one driver from each box.  You can also have a box with the 12 Chase drivers from the previous season, a box with the next 12 drivers from the standings, and then a box with everyone else.  Each entrant picks 3 drivers from each of the first 2 boxes, and then 2 from the final grouping.  Some people like to have a little fun with manufacturers and box drivers accordingly, either with drivers from one manufacturer making one of the groups, or a driver from each manufacturer in a group.  The total number of drivers per team, and how people select them is entirely up to you.  Just remember, you’ll be keeping track of points, so make sure it’s manageable.

Pick One Pools

Generally this type of pool would fall under the Race Pick Nascar Pools, but some leagues are set up that all of the picks are made before the season begins.  Each entrant picks one driver for each race of the season.  Each entrant is limited in the number of times they can use a driver.  The usual options are use a driver once for the entire season, use a driver once for each half of the season (races 1-18 and 19-36), or use a driver for any two races in the season.

Trades

The Box and Salary Cap pools have the option to allow trades.  We suggest limiting trades to 1 or 2 for the season.  Some leagues will also specify a trade window; a couple times in the season where trades can be made.  When done this way, there are no trades allowed outside of these allotted time frames.  In Box pools, trades have to be from within the same grouping, and in Salary Cap pools, trades can’t put the team over the cap.  As far as scoring goes, the points earned from the driver being traded are kept up until the point of the trade, with the new drivers points only being accumulated after the trade is made.  You don’t swap out the entire season’s points.