NASCAR vs MLB

There was a race today in Michigan.  Something called the Quicken Loans 400.  Draft Kings held a series of contest on their DFS sites around this event.  If you've been following this webpage, you'll know 3 things:

• I don't know anything about NASCAR
• I don't even like NASCAR
• I always win at DFS NASCAR

Over the last three weeks, I've entered 10 DFS NASCAR events, and I've won 10 NASCAR events.  I upped the ante this week and joined 6 events, and improved to 16-0.

How can I be so good at a sport I don't know and don't care about and so average at Baseball that I know and love?  What is so different?

The Lessons of NASCAR:

I first must acknowledge that it might simply be dumb luck, otherwise I fall into the traps that so many other "experts" fall into, buying into my own superiority.

There are really only four things that I can see that are different about my attacking NASCAR vs my strategy at Baseball:

• I have absolutely zero personal biases.

I'm a Cubs Fan, and I want Addison Russell and Kris Bryant to be awesome.  I probably think that Jake Arrieta is a better pitcher than he actually is.  As a byproduct, I despise the Mets, and rarely every play them.  Because I love baseball, I hate the Yankees and the Red Sox because it is logically impossible to love both.  I hate DH rule.  I need to learn to let go of these biases.  This is very, very difficult as those biases are 40 years in the making.  But, I must learn to play the best player period.

• I look only at the simple numbers in NASCAR

With baseball, I play hunches.  I look at matchups.  I check out right/lefty matchups.  I do all sorts of things to try to figure the game out.  But since this is essentially a game of chance, a roll of the dice, every logical move I make is probably walking me further away from the most optimal lineup.  What matters is the numbers vs. price: Nothing else.  In baseball, I must learn to refrain from overthinking the issue.  The only two stats that really make a difference are Salary Cost and Points Scored.

• The DFS sport is new, so everybody is learning

I'm not five years behind everybody else in NASCAR.  Everybody is on the same footing.  I started playing DFS because I know I can recognize patterns in numbers much quicker than most of the world.  The problem is people like me are drawn to the numbers puzzle, which is DFS.  The people I play aren't "most of the world."  And I gave them a substantial head start, meaning in baseball, I will probably always be playing from behind.  There is nothing I can do to change this fact, but I must come to an understanding that it is matter of fact.

• Draft Kings is not screwing with the game, yet

Because there is only one race a week, and the newness of the event, Draft Kings does very little tinkering with its NASCAR offerings.  In baseball, they screw with things every day:  significant salary change, random position eligibilities, and often removing players from the playable database.  They know how to make it hard to win at baseball.  They haven't figured it out yet in NASCAR.  Or maybe they are going to leave it alone for a bit to attract new players.  Either way, I'm grateful for this.  Every 4 or 5 days in baseball, I feel I have to relearn significant parts of the game.  I need to run with this unmatched consistency in this DFS offering, and enjoy it while it lasts.