During the off-season NASCAR tossed a couple of curveballs.

Carl Edwards’ unexpected retirement promoted Daniel Suarez to what now promises to be one of the best Rookie of the Year battles since 2006. That comes on the heels of last year’s introduction of Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney. Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon joined the series four years ago and the number of Young Guns with limited Cup experience is going to make fantasy handicapping difficult.

A few weeks later, NASCAR announced a major restructuring of the points’ system that makes every lap of every race matter. Well, perhaps not every lap, but certainly enough to insure that no one rides around in the back of the pack for any amount of time. Segment points will likely play a role in who wins and loses their fantasy lineup.

More than ever, players need to do their homework.  The DanBeaver.com newsletter returns for its second year as a standalone piece, but many of you have been reading this since it began in 2004 with Yahoo! Fantasy Games.  A few have followed me since 2002, when I became NASCAR.com’s handicapper and that means we are going on our 16th season together.

Thanks to everyone who showed their support last year and I hope you return for another season. We’ve kept the pricing the same for 2017. You can renew your subscription here:  http://danbeaver.com/register/purchase/

Look for the Daytona 500 preview to be available on about the 21st. Until then, we are leaving the 2016 previews up. If you have not downloaded all of them, take a minute to do so because the charts and graphs will be helpful in creating a plan of attack.

Please contact me or Victoria if you have any issues. We are truly grateful to have you as readers.