GridRival 101
GridRival is the ultimate fantasy motorsports app. It has featured DFS contests in past years for both F1 and Moto GP. In 2023 it will introduce a new season-long format for NASCAR fans to try their hand at. The entry fee is $75 and GridRival will be giving out $100,000 in total prizes, including a cool $20,000 to first place.
NASCAR Fantasy Matchups Basics
The game itself is pretty simple. Each race users will try to select the highest finisher for each of the five featured matchups of the week. Players will receive points based on how many matchups they pick correctly. The points are broken down as follows:
| Matchups Correct Per Race | Fantasy Points Earned Per Race |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 10 |
| 5 | 15 |
Lockdown
Each race weekend the game will go into "lockdown" at which point users will be unable to enter or edit their selections. This lockdown will begin at the start of each race weekend's first practice session. The one exception to that rule will be the season-opening Daytona 500 where lockdown will begin at the start of the race itself in order to allow potential players as much time as possible to join this season-long contest.
Stage Leaderboards
In conjunction with the season-long points that will accumulate through the entire 36-race schedule, users will also be able to compete in stage leaderboards. These stages throughout the season will typically be 4-6 races in length. The highest scorers over those select races will be eligible to earn prizes as well. So even if you have a tough first couple months of the season, you can still win one of the stages and make a return on investment.
Tips for NASCAR Fantasy Matchups
Get Your Picks in Early
Unlike many other forms of NASCAR fantasy or DFS games, in GridRival's season-long format you will not have the opportunity to watch practice or qualifying to get a gauge on speed. You will need to have your picks in before cars hit the track in first practice. A lot of folks will be eliminated from the season-long prize simply by forgetting when the first practice is. Typically that comes either Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, so giving yourself a Thursday night deadline every week to get these picks in is the way to go.
Stats to Consider
Going into 2022 we had really no idea on what teams were going to hit on something out of the gate with this Next-Gen car. After a full season of data at a variety of different types of tracks, we should have a little better idea of who should be strong where. RotoWire's Mark Taylor does an excellent job breaking down the data in his 2023 Track Specialists article. Be sure to take a look at the track type each week and take a look where each driver has stacked up relative to the competition in the Next-Gen era.
Adjusting Throughout the Season
While to start the season it's reasonable to suggest we can lean on 2022 data, the reality of the situation is that the teams have spent all winter trying to upgrade their cars to be better in different places where they struggled last season. The first six races of 2023 feature a Superspeedway, low-grip intermediate track, high-grip intermediate track, flat one-mile oval, and road course. That will be virtually every track type we will see on the schedule and is a great point to reevaluate where teams stand. Continue to keep track of where teams are excelling at throughout the season via RotoWire's Weekly Preview and NASCAR Barometer.
When to Take a Chance
Not every matchup is going to feel like a 50/50 shot. There's going to be some cases where one driver has been consistently outrunning the other over the last few races. That presents opportunity to make a contrarian play and try to possibly gain some ground on those ahead of you in the standings. The best weeks to do this are Superspeedway style races (Daytona, Talladega, Atlanta), road courses (COTA, Sonoma, Chicago Street Course, IMS Road Course, Watkins Glen, Charlotte Roval), and the Bristol Dirt Race. So much more can happen at these style of tracks that can easily knock a favorite out of the race and allow some longer shots to race towards the front.
