The People’s Facts: Daytona 500

I do not pretend to be an expert on NASCAR racing. I have neither the resources nor the insights to compete head to head with media outlets like the Charlotte Observer or the Orlando Sentinel or Speed TV or anyone else. However, I do hope to offer a few facts on each week’s Sprint Cup Series race. My hope is that offering these basics will persuade you, the Internet, to cast your votes in the weekly polls that will determine the People’s Pitstop lineups.

This week, of course, we have the Daytona 500, aka the Great American Race.

Track basics: Daytona International Speedway is one of the largest (a 2.5-mile tri-oval) and fastest tracks on the NASCAR circuit. Last year’s winner had an average lap speed of nearly 133 miles per hour. In fact, it’s so fast that it’s one of two tracks where NASCAR requires cars to use restrictor plates, which tend to bunch the cars together. What happens when fast cars get bunched together in packs? Crashes like this one.

Recent winners: Matt Kenseth (2009), Ryan Newman (2008), Kevin Harvick (2007).

Who wins a lot here: Daytona hosts two NASCAR Sprint Cup races a year, excluding last week’s Bud Shootout, the racing equivalent of football’s Hall of Fame Game. Jeff Gordon leads active drivers with six wins in points races here, followed by Bill Elliott (four), Tony Stewart (three) and Michael Waltrip (three).

Who may be due: Mark Martin has 17 top 10 finishes at Daytona, including nine finishes in the top five, but has yet to win here. Since NASCAR fans are fond of calling this race their Super Bowl, would that make Martin the equivalent of Jim Kelly (with a cooler haircut)?

Want to know more about each week’s race? Post a comment and let me know. In the meantime, feel free to vote in this week’s polls.

Pick the People’s Pitstop – Daytona 500

First, a quick update on the fantasy football side. Thanks to the input of you, the Internet, the People’s Pigskin finished the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge with 477 points. The most valuable player on our team was also the most valuable player of Super Bowl XLIV: Drew Brees, who scored 57 points. The Pigskin ended up tied for 55,478th overall and in 18th place in the 9beersfantasysportstavern league. And we have you to thank.

With the fantasy football completed for the time being, it’s time to shift gears (pardon the pun) to fantasy NASCAR. And once again, it’s time for you, the Internet, to speak up.

The People’s Pigskin will be running the People’s Pitstop team in Yahoo! Fantasy Sports Auto Racing. We’ll be part of the Fans of From the Marbles league. Our goal: to win by picking a lineup via Internet polling.

Here are some of the rules. (You can learn more by clicking here.) Each week the fantasy players pick a roster of eight drivers for that week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race. It’s sort of like a Chinese menu. You can have two drivers from the A List (basically the top 10 drivers from the last season), four drivers from the B List (the 16 next-best drivers in NASCAR), and two drivers from the C List (everyone else). From those drivers, we pick four starters (one from the A List, two from the B List, and one from the C List). The starting drivers score points for the fantasy team according to how well they do in that week’s race.

Oh, and one more thing: No driver can start more than nine races for a fantasy team. Once a driver has started his ninth race, he (yes, for the time being, that’s still the correct pronoun) is off limits.

In future weeks, there will be points for qualifying well for that week’s race. However, this week’s race is the Daytona 500, and qualifying for that race — well, it’s complicated. They had a typical qualifying session this past weekend, but only for the front two positions. They went to Mark Martin (one of the drivers on the A List) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (one of the drivers on the B List). On Thursday, NASCAR will hold a pair of 125-mile races to determine the rest of the grid for Sunday’s version of the “Great American Race.”

Got it? Good. Cause now it’s your turn to vote. The polls are now open. You’re voting for two drivers in the first poll, four drivers in the second poll, and two drivers in the third poll. The drivers with the most votes will get the spots in the People’s Pitstop lineup. If you want to learn more about the race, you can click here for a Yahoo-written PDF or click here for a RotoSports.com preview. Because I will be on the road Sunday for a Chinese New Year dinner (again, it’s complicated), the polls will close on Saturday night. Please vote now. We’ll be back later with some more thoughts on the NASCAR season.

The People’s Choice – Super Bowl XLIV

You, the  Internet, found time between your shopping for snacks and your selection of lucky jerseys to voice your opinion on the People’s Pigskin lineup for the Super Bowl round of the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge. Here’s the lineup, and here’s the breakdown.

Quarterback. For the third round in a row, the votes went to Drew Brees. Because he’s starting for the Internet’s favorite fantasy football team for the third straight week, he gets triple the points.

Running back. Super Bowl Sunday’s starters are the same as the conference championship starters: Pierre Thomas and Joseph Addai. They both get double the points.

Wide receiver. Again, we have a couple of repeat starters who will get double the points: Reggie Wayne and Marques Colston.

Tight end. Yes, Virginia, it’s possible to run an Internet poll on fantasy football and get a unanimous vote. Everyone picked Dallas Clark, another beneficiary of the double points for starting a second straight round.

Kicker. This race did not feature anyone getting bonus points. In fact, we are using the fourth kicker in as many rounds, because each kicker has lost in the first three rounds. I don’t know if New Orleans Saints fans will be happy to hear that you, the Internet, have selected Matt Stover for our Super Bowl starting spot.

Defense/special teams. I guess it wouldn’t be a People’s Pigskin team without at least one poll that resulted in a tie. Following the long and proud People’s Pigskin tradition, we flipped a coin (without the help of these guys). The winner: the Indianapolis Colts.

You can see the poll results below. The new poll is about the halftime entertainment, but feel free to vote before the game. We’ll be back tomorrow with a look at the Daytona 500 and how you, the Internet, will select the People’s Pitstop lineup. Until then, enjoy the Super Bowl, and try not to drown in nacho cheese.

The Obligatory Super Bowl Prediction

There’s still time for you to vote on the People’s Pigskin’s lineup for the final round in the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge. The polls will close Sunday in time to set the Internet’s favorite fantasy football lineup for Super Bowl XLIV.

In the meantime, before we switch our focus to fantasy NASCAR racing, it’s time to make one last football prediction: the Super Bowl. There are plenty of places to find matchup breakdowns and thoughts on things like prop bets and whether Reggie Bush should allow himself to get within 100 yards of a Kardashian. But I couldn’t call myself a football writer of any sort (fantasy or otherwise) without offering a prediction for Sunday’s game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints.

In fantasy football terms, you would be happy to have just about any of the starters on either team, offense or defense. Both quarterbacks were in the top four at their position in ESPN fantasy points this season. Each team had a running back and a wide receiver in the top 20. Dallas Clark ranked 2nd among tight ends (and will stay in the top five until someone decides he’s not a tight end just because the Colts call him one), but Jeremy Shockey also made the top 20. Dwight Freeney’s injury might make the Colts defense slightly less valuable, but both defenses ranked in the top 20. (The Saints ranked third.)

In other words, no matter who wins this year’s Super Bowl, you could point to fantasy football stats to explain why.

The People’s Pigskin predictions went 2-0 in the conference championship round, raising the season record to 6-4 and guaranteeing a winning postseason for the forecasts. But it nearly wasn’t so. The Minnesota Vikings were in position to at least give its kicker a chance to win the game in regulation. If Brett Favre doesn’t throw one of the dumbest interceptions of the year, the Vikings probably beat the Saints. And that was despite the fact that the Vikings had already fumbled the ball six times and turned it over four times before that throw.

If the Saints are hoping for a similar performance from the Colts in general or Peyton Manning in particular, they must have gotten a hold of some bad gumbo. The Colts will take care of the ball and take care of the Saints.

We’ll be back tomorrow with the poll results. In the meantime, enjoy the Bud Shootout, a sneak preview of the NASCAR season that’s just getting started as football season winds down.

Now, About the Super Bowl…

Nothing against the Tim Tebow Lovefest known as the Senior Bowl, or the burning question about whether Chad Ochocinco should kick in the Pro Bowl (and whether the NFC can borrow him to play offensive tackle), but it’s time to refocus attention on the game that has motivated every NFL player since he put on his first shoulder pads: the Super Bowl.

The People’s Pigskin’s quest to kick virtual butt in the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge took almost as many hits as Brett Favre took last week. The Internet’s favorite fantasy football team scored 89 points. Our three-week total is 314, which leaves us tied for 118,427th overall and 40th in the 9beersfantasysportstavern league.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that six of our players from last week are eligible to be used in the Super Bowl. Drew Brees would get triple the points, since we would be using him for the third straight week. Five other players (Pierre Thomas, Joseph Addai, Reggie Wayne, Marques Colston and Dallas Clark) would get double the points for their work.

With that in mind, it’s time for you, the Internet, to rise to the challenge again and pick our lineup for Super Bowl XLIV. The polls are open and will stay open until Super Sunday. Happy picking. We’ll be back with some insight on our upcoming fantasy racing season. By the way, here are the results for our poll on other fantasy sports.

Fantasy Players, Start Your Engines

We’ll get back to our quest for glory in the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge in the next post. In the meantime, since I now know the AFC won’t be needing to play quarterback in the Pro Bowl, it’s time to make an announcement.

The People’s Pigskin started as an experiment in fantasy football by democracy. The goal was to determine whether polls by you, the Internet, could produce a fantasy football team that performed just as well as one that based its decisions on “expert” opinions from people paid to have opinions. The experiment has been a success, so we are expanding it into another venture.

Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the People’s Pitstop, an experiment in fantasy auto racing by democracy.

Why auto racing? First of all, the NASCAR racing season starts in early February, minimizing the down time for this site. Second, and more importantly, NASCAR racing isn’t just for rednecks anymore. What do California, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York have in common? Each state will host at least one NASCAR Sprint Cup race this year. Fox may play to the redneck crowd by having Darrell Waltrip in the booth, but people have enjoyed watching one person drive faster than the other since Romans were racing chariots.

This experiment, like the last one (which will resume next football season), will rely on you, the Internet, to vote in polls to stock our fantasy racing team from week to week. This time, the venue is Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Auto Racing, and the goal is to win the Friends of From the Marbles league. (The league is named for Yahoo’s racing blog From the Marbles.)

The first race is the Daytona 500 on Feb. 14 (yes, Valentine’s Day), so we’ll get to the mechanics of stocking the team next week. In the meantime, you can learn about NASCAR racing here and read the rules for the fantasy game here.

We’ll be back tomorrow with an update on the Internet’s favorite football team and the polls for Super Bowl week.

The People’s Choice – Conference Championships

Another week has come and gone, and once again you, the Internet, have answered the call.

This week the People’s Pigskin asked you to pick our lineup for the conference championship round of the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge. You can see this week’s lineup here. Drumroll, please…

Quarterback. It’s unanimous. The Internet’s favorite fantasy football team will start Drew Brees and reap the benefit of double points.

Running back. This one’s a little more complex. Pierre Thomas is the clear winner for the first spot. The second spot came down to a four-way tie, a first for the People’s Pigskin. Names were drawn out of Drew Carey’s hat, and the winner is Joseph Addai.

Wide receiver. This time we have a three-way tie for two starting spot. Again, we turn to Drew Carey’s hat, and this time the winners were Reggie Wayne and Marques Colston. Sorry, Sidney Rice, but you were the odd man out.

Tight end. A clear winner here: Dallas Clark.

Kicker. This time it’s unanimous. You told us to start Jay Feely, and we’ll have to hope the wind doesn’t affect…oh, wait, all the games are indoors today. Scratch that.

Defense/special teams. We continue to ride the New York Jets, and hopefully we’ll benefit from the triple points this squad will generate.

Results can be seen below. We’ll be back later with the announcement that was promised in the last post.

Conference Championship Predictions

Sorry this post didn’t get up sooner, but I’m still waiting to hear about the Raiders job.

There’s still time to vote on the People’s Pigskin lineup for the conference championship round of the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge. One reminder: Drew Brees would get double the points if he makes the lineup, and the New York Jets defense/special teams would get triple the points.

Now it’s time to do something that thousands of people across the country are doing right now, online and off: make predictions for the National Football League conference championships. Last week’s forecasts went 2-2, leaving us with a postseason record of 4-4. It’s time to break out of mediocrity.

AFC Championship: Indianapolis Colts vs. New York Jets. The last time these two franchises met (which wasn’t Super Bowl III, no matter what the NFL Network might want you to believe), Peyton Manning and company left the game in the third quarter, ending the Colts’ chances for an undefeated season and easing the Jets path to the playoffs.

And how much influence will that have on Sunday’s championship game? The same amount of influence that the result of Super Bowl III will have: Jack Squat.

Clearly, Mark Sanchez has defied expectations this postseason. (It always helps to have a solid defense and a running game that doesn’t humiliate itself.) Nevertheless, it’s still Peyton Manning’s world, and the rest of us are just watching it. The one thing this season has shown us is that Peyton could direct touchdown drives even if Robin Williams’ character from “The Best of Times” lined up at receiver. This game could come down to somebody leading a 90-second scoring drive at the end. If that’s the case, which quarterback do you want? The Colts take this one.

NFC Championship: New Orleans Saints vs. Minnesota Vikings. One team lead the NFL in scoring this season and has the quarterback who threw for the most touchdowns this season. The other team is being led by a quarterback last seen performing “Pants on the Ground.” No, I’m not linking to Brett Favre’s version or the original. Both songs have gotten far more attention than they deserve.

So has Favre.

Yes, he proved that he can still throw a football down the field. Yes, his interceptions and fumbles dropped considerably this season. However, Drew Brees beat Favre this season in yardage, completion percentage, touchdowns and quarterback rating. If you look at statistics for this postseason, Brees is still beating Favre in percentage and yardage. And given the way Favre handled everything from his signing with the Vikings to his relationship with Brad Childress, Brees has to be leading in one other crucial category: karma. All that adds up to the first Super Bowl appearance in the Saints’ history.

Remember to vote in our polls, and do whatever you can to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake. We’ll be back Sunday with poll results and an announcement.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4767366

About Last Weekend (and the Next One)

The Internet’s favorite fantasy football team found itself running to stand still, and in this case, that’s not necessarily a good thing.

The People’s Pigskin managed to score 108 points this past week in the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge. That’s 9 fewer points than we scored in the wild card round, despite having four players eligible for double points. The 225 total points leaves the Pigskin tied for 38,805th overall and tied for 14th in the 9beersfantasysportstavern league. Here is the breakdown.

Drew Brees, QB. The stats: 247 yards passing, 3 touchdowns and 21 fantasy points. Given the pinball numbers the New Orleans Saints compiled against the Arizona Cardinals, one would think Brees’ statistics would be stronger than this.

Ray Rice, RB. The stats: 67 rushing yards, 60 receiving yards, 1 fumble and 24 fantasy points. Because he was in our lineup for the second straight week, Rice received double the points for his efforts. And even if the same had held true for the Baltimore Ravens as a team, it wouldn’t have been enough to get them to the next round.

LaDainian Tomlinson, RB. The stats: 24 rushing yards and 2 fantasy points. There’s plenty of speculation about whether Tomlinson will be with the San Diego Chargers next season. Certainly one place he won’t be is in many starting fantasy lineups.

Miles Austin, WR. The stats: 34 rushing yards, 8 receiving yards and 3 fantasy points. It seems the only people reaping fantasy points from the Dallas Cowboys offensive drives played for the Minnesota Vikings defense.

Larry Fitzgerald, WR. The stats: 77 receiving yards and 14 fantasy points. Another player getting double the points for a team that even more help than that getting to the next round. (Maybe the Arizona Cardinals should have borrowed the Vikings defense.)

Jason Witten, TE. The stats: 98 receiving yards and 18 fantasy points. The point doubling made his stats look decent. Unfortunately, that’s all they did.

Nate Kaeding, K. The stats: 0 for 3 on field goals, 2 for 2 on extra points and 2 fantasy points. In a word, augh. You’d think the San Diego Chargers had signed Lucy Van Pelt to be the holder.

New York Jets, D/ST. The stats: 2 interceptions, 14 points allowed, 344 yards allowed and 24 fantasy points. Unlike the three other players who reaped the benefit of point doubling, the Jets are still playing and still available to us for the conference championships.

Speaking of which, it’s time for you, the Internet, to pick the lineup for Sunday’s games between the Vikings and the Saints and between the Jets and the Colts. Brees is eligible for double the points, and the Jets defense/special teams are eligible for triple the points. Please vote accordingly, and please remember that you’re voting for two running backs and two wide receivers. The lineup polls will close on Sunday.

The People’s Choice – Division Round

Another week has come and gone, and you, the Internet, have spoken yet again. The votes are in for the lineup the People’s Pigskin will field in week 2 of the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge. Here are the results.

Quarterback. With Aaron Rodgers no longer available, you voted to give Drew Brees the starting spot. His New Orleans Saints take on the Arizona Cardinals in the Saturday afternoon game.

Running back. Everyone voted to keep Ray Rice in the lineup. He gets double the points this round, and his Baltimore Ravens visit the Indianapolis Colts Saturday night. For the other running back spot, it came down to a tie between Marion Barber and LaDainian Tomlinson. A coin was flipped, and the winner was Tomlinson. His San Diego Chargers face the New York Jets in the late Sunday afternoon game.

Wide receiver. There were two clear winners in this pool. One was Larry Fitzgerald, who gets double the points this round. His Arizona Cardinals face the Saint. The other clear winner was Miles Austin, whose Dallas Cowboys face the Minnesota Vikings in the early Sunday afternoon game.

Tight end. The voting produced a tie between Jason Witten and Dallas Clark. Since Witten is worth double the points this round, Witten gets the nod. His Cowboys visit the Vikings.

Kicker. Another position, another tie. This one pits Jay Feely against Nate Kaeding. Another coin was flipped, and the winner was Kaeding. His San Diego Chargers get the Jets.

Defense/special teams. There was a tie here between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Jets. Since the Jets will get double the points for making it to week 2, they get the nod here for their game against the Chargers.

Thanks for your votes. We have another poll up now that acknowledges that — gasp! — there’s life after football season. We’d appreciate your vote there, too. The results from our lineup polls can be seen below.