World Cup

Group pairings and matchups for the first round of the World Cup competition.

2011 - World Cup

Gonzo did well in the knockout phase, winning four matches by at least 62 points. In the final, Gonzo beat Top of Texas by 85 points.
Gonzo finished second in the Darrell Waltrip group to advance to the knockout phase, and finished tied for first (ended up being seeded third) in the Lowe’s group to advance to the second round.
Overall winner RYAN’S FAST was eliminated in the second round. It tied with SICK PUPS for the final advancing spot from that group but lost on the tiebreaker.

Miami

Recaps on each of the competitions are coming, but here's a list of the competition winners and the gory details.

RYAN'S FAST: Overall, Double Elimination Heat
Gonzo33 Racing: Yahoo Overall, Yahoo Second Half, Yahoo Fall, World Cup, Single Elimination Bracket, Single Elimination Heat, Chase
RMO Lug Nutz: Yahoo First Half
napolean: Yahoo Spring
Cooter88: Yahoo Summer, Double Elimination Bracket


REMINDER: If you want an invite for 2012, drop me a line here or at fclex@yahoo.com

Congrats to all!


Nascar11.Miami

Charlotte II

I'll go ahead and jinx it: Yours truly is on a roll...

And that Overall race is a DOOZY!!!

Finalists will be determined for the World Cup competition at Talladega. Hang on...



Nascar11.Charlotte

Loudon - fall

Eliminations in the World Cup, more shuffling in the Overall and Chase.


nascar11.lou

Bristol II

Bristol was one of RMFN's best tracks in the spring, so it was no surprise the same trend followed on the return trip. The 277 average was the highest since the spring and the zero - 0! - sub-200 scores was the third of the season and first since Kansas on June 5.

Two teams shared the top spot - #3 Intimidator and billy's boys 10 - at 359 (the fifth-highest winning score of the season).

Click here or the headline for the gory details.

On to the competitions...

OVERALL
RMO Lug Nutz bowed out of three competitions at Bristol, but still holds a commanding lead.
I added a 'Best Poss' column to indicate the best possible score for each team. I also incorporated live standings for the Chase (previous posts indicated 1s for all RMFN teams). Reminder: I fell behind on the template for the head-to-head format and it was dropped earlier this summer. Apologies.
It appears RMO's worst would be about 9.5. Even then, the contenders would need RMO to fall completely apart in the fall to give another team an opening. Not likely.

CHASE
RMFN has entertained up to 15 teams in the final Chase in prior years, but this year's parity and range of teams securing wins has changed that. Through Bristol - and with two races until the Chase starts - there are currently 27 teams eligible. Another seven are just 100 points short of the cutoff.

SINGLE ELIM BRACKET
The final four teams are set after the quarterfinal round finished at Bristol.
Damn Sunday Drivers is the highest remaining seed (7), while Gonzo33 is the lowest (33).
Tough luck award to LT4SS-DE, which lost to Dirt Track Outlaws by just 12 points.
Semifinal matchups:
SICK PUPS vs. Damn Sunday
Dirt Track vs. Gonzo33

DOUBLE ELIM BRACKET
Cooter88 moved into the championship with a convincing win over RMO. Cooter now has a bye until the other finalist is determined (late October).
RMO joins three teams in the losers' bracket.
Tough luck award to JoRo's Rockets and to Team Lester. JoRo lost to katie's bootleggers by just 18 points; Lester by 10 to Damn Sunday.
Consolation semifinal matchups:
Killer Carl #99 (now Sugar Ray Childress Fight Club on Yaho) vs. RMO
katie's vs. Damn Sunday

SINGLE ELIM HEAT
AMSKahne4, Damn Sunday, HEAVY CHEVY and Gonzo33 advanced to the semifinal heat.
HEAVY claimed the last spot by just 4 points over RMO.
Gonzo33 is the lowest remaining seed (35).

DOUBLE ELIM HEAT
Cooter88 advanced to the final with a big winners' heat win over MONSTER Racing. Like the double bracket, Cooter is off until late October.
GOOD TO GO, SICK PUPS and RYAN'S FAST stayed alive in the losers' heat. Sunday Money 10 was the last team eliminated, by 25 points to RYAN'S FAST.
SICK PUPS is the lowest remaining seed at No. 42.

WORLD CUP
Higher seeds won five of eight Round of 16 matchups, led by the two top seeds - Betty Boop Madness and Sunday Money.
The lowest seed remaining is Swindell Motorsports.
Tough luck award to Oval Friends, which lost by 8 points to swindell. Honorable mentions to GoSlowTurnRight and AMSKahne5.
Quarterfinal matchups:
Betty Boop (1-1) vs. Swindell (2-1)
Top of Texas Racing (1-6) vs. GOOD TO GO (1-4)
billy's boys 10 (2-6) vs. Damn Sunday (1-5)
Gonzo33 (2-2) vs. Sunday Money (1-2)

Watkins Glen

Update is below.

CLOWN CAR, an early-season Overall contender, will get booted if its lineup doesn't change for Michigan. That will mean that Sunday Money will advance to the quarterfinals in the World Cup.

Boris Said, anyone?




nascar11.glen

Indy

We had mass eliminations in the World Cup competition, and therefore some shuffling in the Overall. Next up: cuts in the Double Elimination Bracket & Heat competitions.



nascar11.indy

Loudon

The feedback at the Yahoo site and via email is much appreciated. With Google planning to send its blogger.com blogs to Google+, I'm guessing that's where this will end up for next season. I may send it there after Homestead anyway. There seems to be more tools (and people) added to it everyday. It may also offer a solution to the Scribd problem.

DROPOUTS
Getting more questions about how to handle midseason dropouts. The seeds are set prior to the season, so matchups (for the most part) are luck of the draw. But the impact on teams that stay yet lost in the early round of a competition can be significant (see Cooter's early exit in the Single Elim Bracket to Buford's Boyz).
There are innumerable ways to look at/fix it, and I'd be welcome to suggestions. I've tried to make it as fair as possible by eliminating the exiting team at the earliest possible point without compromising the brackets or heats already in progress. Thoughts?

WORLD CUP
The Brickyard presents eliminations for 16 teams in the World Cup competition. Here's who's already qualified for the knockout phase:
Sunday Money 10 (1st in Earnhardt group), GOOD TO GO (1 or 2 in Gordon), Damn Sunday Drivers (1 or 2 in Pearson), RMO Lug Nutz (1 in Waltrip), Gonzo33 (2 in Waltrip), AMSKahne4 (2 in Yarborough), Betty Boop Madness (1 in Yarborough), Oval Friends (1 in Allison), Top of Texas (1 or 2 in Johnson) and Swindell Motorsports (1 or 2 in Johnson).
What's to be decided:
EARNHARDT: napolean holds a one-game lead over Cooter88; they face other teams at Indy.
PETTY: What. A. Mess. Little Deuce Coupe and JoRo's Rockets are tied for first, one game ahead of billy's boys 10 and BLOWINSMOKE. Indy matchups: BLOWIN v. billys and JoRo's v. LDC
GORDON: GoSlowTurnRight holds a one-game lead over Jr. Nation; they face other teams at Indy.
PEARSON: CLOWN CAR holds a one-game lead over BLOWINSMOKEJR; they face other teams at Indy.
ALLISON: FC Newman, RYAN'S FAST and SICK PUPS are tied for second. FCN v. RF and SP v. Oval Friends at Indy.




nascar11.loudon

World Cup - Round 2

I've posted this before here, but the WC is my favorite RMFN competition. The unpredictability of the matchups and results makes for a fascinating game.

I've set the parameters for the group placement and advancement prior to the season, so the oddities that follow are a result of how we - as a group - have played the 2011 season so far.

Only one of the 10 groups didn't need a tie-breaker to determine final standings from the first round. The details of how those ties were broken can be found in the black bars beneath each group's final standings on the 'World Cup Rd 1' page of the spreadsheet.

We started the season short two teams and lost two more late in the first round. As a result the top two fourth-place finishers were determined only by average points scored in the WC. Dirty Drivers left in Week 10 of the season, but had already completed - and was eliminated from - the WC. No harm, no foul, no RMFN invite for 2012.

A quick note on the average points column - those are averages for points scored during races scored in the WC. Each team had two 'bye weeks' during the first round. So...while a team may be higher in the Yahoo standings (and therefore have a higher overall average points scored per race), that team's average could be significantly adjusted if its best scores were in WC bye weeks.

The seeds and groups for the next round are broken down on the 'World Cup Seeds' page.

A statistical preview of the next round, dubbed the Champions Qualifying, is on the 'WC Group Ratings' page. Here you'll find columns breaking down the teams' seeds entering the 2011 season, their Overall standing entering Darlington, their Yahoo standing entering Darlington and a composite total of those figures.

Why is this cool? Our overall leader, RMO Lug Nuts, and the team trailing it in the Yahoo standings, napolean, are in the two most difficult groups (on paper). napolean suffered an early RMFN Overall setback by losing a head-to-head matchup against RMO in the RMFN Single Elimination Bracket.

If RMO is eliminated here and napolean advances in this round of the WC, the Overall title is back up for grabs. If both bow out, we have the virtual version of the Big One in the RMFN standings.

napolean has another RMFN Overall top 10 team in its group; RMO has two.

Finally, the cherry on top - the two paperweight-heavy groups were slugged the Waltrip and Earnhardt groups.

How fitting.

Darlington

A breakdown of the World Cup advancers/eliminations will be posted later this week.



Nascar11.Darling

Richmond

Jr. Nation's 347 was the top RMFN score at Richmond, one of 12 scores above 300. Average RMFN score was 286, down about 10 points from last week. RMFN's string of limited sub-200 scores continued with just three at Richmond. To illustrate the turnaround:
First three races - 5 300+ scores, 41 sub-200 scores
Six races since - 96 300 + scores, 11 sub-200 scores

DEPARTURES NOTE: I adjusted the prior scores for Yduck and Buford's Boyz to 0s, which changed results in the World Cup, Head to Head and Single Elim Heat competitions. Two teams that were formerly eliminated are now still alive in the SEH. The WC and HtH are still in the middle of their rounds and were affected.


OVERALL
I added some color bars to help differentiate some groups based on average finishes. The top group has the best shot at the overall title. The number of members in those groups will decrease as we eliminate more teams from competitions.


CHASE
The string of 300 scores by RMO Lug Nutz and napolean has put pressure on the rest of the RMFN field to keep pace. Just 9 races into the season and only 23 teams are currently eligible for the Chase.


WORLD CUP
As noted above, the score changes did shift some things in the group standings. The final race of the Track Qualifying round is at Darlington - if you're racing, bring your best.
Ties within groups will be decided by:
1. Points
2. Head to head
3. Record vs. other group teams, top to bottom
4. Points average
5. Points average in head to head matchups
6. Points average against other group teams, top to bottom.
The top two fourth-place teams will be determined solely by average score in the WC. The seeding for the first- through third-place teams will be by WC points and then WC average.
The 'World Cup Seeds' page outlines what the next round's pairings would look like if the Champion Qualifying started at Darlington.


SINGLE ELIM BRACKET
We're halfway through the second round; eight of the matchups carry margins of fewer than 100 points into Darlington.


SINGLE ELIM HEAT
We shuffled Yduck and Buford's out of the second round and added the top two teams eliminated in the first round. Round two is halfway complete; the 900+ scores appear to be on solid ground right now.


HEAD TO HEAD
The records shuffled a little bit with the no scores for Yduck and Buford's from earlier this season. RMO and napolean are still leading the standings.


DOUBLE ELIM BRACKET/HEAT
Richmond marked the first race of the third round; three races to go.


nascar11.richmond

Texas snooze

Man, that race was HORRIBLE.

The only good thing to come out of it - a great week for RMFN. We averaged 303 and had 29 teams score more than 300 points (me, unfortunately, not included).

No eliminations this week but a couple of notables:
* CHASE: Rev-a-lusion's big score and win vaulted it from 27th to 6th in the standings (50 bonus points for the 'win' at Texas).
* WORLD CUP: Only two teams remain unbeaten - Little Deuce Coupe (6-0) and Yduck (5-0).
* DOUBLE ELIM BRACKET/HEAT: Talladega will mark the final race of the second round. We'll have some eliminations after the Big One. Will you survive?
* HEAD TO HEAD: napolean (14-2) has taken over the top spot. RMO Lug Nutz is second at 13-3.


nascar11.texas

For weeks where we have eliminations, I'll break up the pdfs by competition. Since that isn't the case this week, it's a lump-sum post.

Rough week for almost everyone at Daytona. I rolled the dice with Trevor and he saved my lost points from Burton and Newman.

A quick 'Booo!' to Nasty Habits and Winner By A Tire Length. Both dropped out of RMFN before the green flag.

Implications: the matchups in the bracket competitions and World Cup.
For the brackets, those opposing teams will advance to the next round but will be reseeded like the other second-round qualifiers for Round Two.
For the World Cup, the top two fourth-place teams will be determined by average points instead of World Cup points.

Good luck at Phoenix!!



nascar11.Daytona

The World is watching ...

My favorite side competition of RMFN - World Cup.

The first group phase runs through the 10th race of the season and features a double round-robin format for the five group members (10 groups).

Teams were seeded based on overall rating, resulting in some interesting groups:

DARLINGTON: No. 7 overall billy's boys 10 is paired with No. 3 from 2010 AMSKahne4.
POCOCONO (group of death): No. 10 overall/No. 10 2010 Sunday Money 1011; No. 11/No.13 Tony is The Man; and No. 30/No. 7 Damn Sunday Drivers.




nascar11.preWC

World Cup details

Format features three phases (track qualifying, champion qualifying and chase bracket) and will cover the entire season.

Track Qualifying (Races 1-10)

Teams will be seeded based on Yahoo! fantasy NASCAR rating (weighted finishes of prior years).

Ten groups of five teams; double round-robin format.

Groups (seed numbers):
Daytona: 1, 20, 21, 40, 41
Bristol: 2, 19, 22, 39, 42
Talladega: 3, 18, 23, 38, 43
Lowe's: 4, 17, 24, 37, 44
Indianapolis: 5, 16, 25, 36, 45
Homestead: 6, 15, 26, 35, 46
Darlington: 7, 14, 27, 34, 47
Watkins Glen: 8, 13, 28, 33, 48
Martinsville: 9, 12, 29, 32, 49
Pocono: 10, 11, 30, 31, 50

The top three teams from each group and the two best fourth-place finishers advance to Champion Qualifying.

Champion Qualifying (Races 11-20)

Groups from prior round will be seeded based on finishes within groups (i.e. all second-place teams will be seeded according to 1) World Cup points; 2) Yahoo! points).

Eight groups of four; quadruple round-robin format.

Groups:

Dale Earnhardt: No. 1 first; No. 6 second; No. 7 second; No. 2 fourth
Richard Petty: No. 2 first; No. 5 second; No. 8 second; No. 1 fourth
Jeff Gordon: No. 3 first; No. 4 second; No. 9 second; No. 10 third
David Pearson: No. 4 first; No. 3 second; No. 10 second; No. 9 third
Darrell Waltrip: No. 5 first; No. 2 second; No. 1 third; No. 8 third
Cale Yarborough: No. 6 first; No. 1 second; No. 2 third; No. 7 third
Bobby Allison: No. 7 first; No. 10 first; No. 3 third; No. 6 third
Junior/Jimmie Johnson: No. 8 first; No. 9 first; No. 4 third; No. 5 third

Top two from each group advance to Chase Bracket.

Chase Bracket (Races 21-36)

Groups from prior round will be seeded based on top two finishers and total Yahoo points.

Single-elimination bracket format

Phase will cover races 21-36, and each round is comprised of four races.

Total Yahoo! points over the four races advances.

Round of 16: races 21-24 (pairings: No. 1 first-place team v. No. 8 second-place team; N0. 8 first vs. No. 1 second; No. 6 first vs. No. 3 second; No. 4 first vs. No. 5 second; No. 3 first vs. No. 6 second; No. 5 first vs. No. 4 seconds; No. 7 first vs. No. 2 second; No. 2 first vs. No. 7 second)
Quarterfinals: races 25-28
Semifinals: races 29-32
First/Third: races 33-36

WC -

BLOWINSMOKE, the No. 4 seed in the bracket phase, beat Al Briggs Racing, 14th, by 17 points in the World Cup final. Turn Right Once In Awhile dominated paulmotors10 for third.

The final was the second-closest matchup of the bracket phase - Sunday Money 10 topped 09 Dodge Caravan Driver by one point in the Round of 16.

The two group phases followed by the bracket phases allows for some comeback stories, and this year was no different.

ABR and Rolling Thunder finished third in the groups in the first phase (only the top three from each group were guaranteed spots in the next round. ABR also advanced to the bracket phase by winning a tiebreaker for second place in its group in the second group phase (first place went to BLOWINSMOKE).

TROIA had a longer road, finishing as the best fourth-place finisher in the first group phase to advance (p10 won that group).

In terms of finish in the Overall:
1 (overall) BLOWINSMOKE 1 (WC)
2 TROIA 3
3 Damn Sunday Drivers 5
4 Stone Cold 23
5 Bassman Racing 27
6 CLOWN CAR RACING 12
7 Rolling Thunder 6
8 Sunday Money 8
9 Tony is the Man 11
10 Monster 42

Paperclip, part II

Scores were way down at Martinsville. I'm attributing that to a late-season hangover - teams are tired and napping has been a better option than watching the race on most recent Sunday afternoons. I hope that changes at 'dega.

We have our final pairings in the World Cup competition. Check the sheet for details.

Also, short of a big fall over the final four races, BLOWINSMOKE will win the Overall title. But there is the 'dega beast yet to contain.




nascar10.mville2

Dover

Golden Boy 48 came out of no where to claim the top score of 370 at Dover. Only BLOWINSMOKE had a better score this season (380 at Sonoma in June). All told, 18 RMFN drivers were above 300 and the average was a solid 283.4.

We're also finding some consistency. Seven teams have posted back-to-back 300 scores and four have reached that mark for four straight races.


WORLD CUP
The only eliminations at Dover resulted in our semifinalists, and the top two seeds in the final bracket - Sunday Money 10 and Damn Sunday Drivers - didn't make it.
paulmotors10 takes on BLOWINSMOKE and Al Briggs Racing plays Turn Right Once In Awhile in the semifinals. Al Briggs is the lowest seed remaining (entered the bracket as No. 14; entered the second round as No. 30; entered the season as No. 36).
The semifinals run from Kansas to Martinsville (four races).


CHASE
Fun race provided a tight pack at the top. 11 of the 13 teams are within 133 points of each other with 10 races to go. SNAPPY LOBSTA moved to the front, as one of two teams with consecutive 300+ races.
09 Dodge Caravan Driver is dominating the Leftovers group.


OVERALL
Turn Right continues to hold the top spot, and any shift in that will likely have to come in the Yahoo Fall standings. Right now, Turn Right stands ahead of the challengers.


SINGLE ELIMINATION BRACKET
Turn Right and Bassman Racing lead their semifinal matchups. Dover marked the third of five races in the semifinals.


DOUBLE ELIMINATION BRACKET
After one race (of three) in the consolation final (loser finishes third), Turn Right has a hefty 71-point lead over BLOWINSMOKE. This one could clinch the title for Turn Right.
yduck advanced to the championship already and is awaiting the winner.


SINGLE ELIMINATION HEAT
Tony is the Man and paulmotors10 lead the semifinals; Turn Right and Rolling Thunder have lots to make up in the final two of five races in this round.


DOUBLE ELIMINATION HEAT
Turn Right built a 70-point lead over Bassman Racing in the first of three races of the consolation final (loser finishes third).
#3 Dale Earnhardt Sr advance to the championship already and is awaiting the winner.





nascar10.dover2

The Right Turn at Bristol

Turn Right Once In Awhile appears to have the overall title locked up. Based on eliminations and TROIA's advancements after Bristol in the single, double and World Cup competitions, can anyone see a way it isn't a done deal? 50th in the fall season maybe?

More comments later this week (also fist-bump to me for a 300; about damn time).




nascar10.bristol2