The Cup Series West Coast Swing comes to an end this weekend with the FanShield 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. This will be our first race on a track shorter than 1.5-miles in length, which means we’ll get to see the new package that NASCAR is rolling out for these tracks. As far as Phoenix goes, it’s a flat track that compares most to Richmond Raceway. You can also throw Loudon in there as a similar track.
There are quite a few statistics that go into the Power Index formula, including recent performance both overall and at Phoenix specifically, similar track performance, projected strength of the car, practice speeds, starting position, and a few other variables.
Here’s a quick overview of the Power Index number: essentially, zero (0) is considered average; the more negative a number is in the Power Index, the stronger that driver is considered in the Fantasy NASCAR world. The opposite holds true as well: the more above zero a driver is, the worse he is considered for Fantasy NASCAR that week.
FanShield 500 Fantasy NASCAR Power Rankings
Rank | Driver | Power Index |
1. | Harvick, Kevin | -42.6 |
2. | Elliott, Chase | -39.4 |
3. | Busch, Kyle | -39.1 |
4. | Hamlin, Denny | -30.5 |
5. | Larson, Kyle | -27.1 |
6. | Blaney, Ryan | -22.6 |
7. | Truex, Jr., Martin | -21.7 |
8. | Jones, Erik | -18.9 |
9. | Bowman, Alex | -16.2 |
10. | Logano, Joey | -14.4 |
11. | Keselowski, Brad | -13.1 |
12. | Almirola, Aric | -10.6 |
13. | Busch, Kurt | -9.5 |
14. | Bowyer, Clint | -6.3 |
15. | Johnson, Jimmie | -2.0 |
16. | Byron, William | -0.3 |
17. | DiBenedetto, Matt | 1.3 |
18. | Stenhouse, Jr., Ricky | 7.5 |
19. | Bell, Christopher | 9.3 |
20. | Dillon, Austin | 10.2 |
21. | Custer, Cole | 14.1 |
22. | Chastain, Ross | 18.2 |
23. | Dillon, Ty | 22.2 |
24. | Buescher, Chris | 23.5 |
25. | Wallace, Bubba | 28.6 |
26. | Reddick, Tyler | 28.7 |
27. | Nemechek, John H | 28.8 |
28. | McDowell, Michael | 38.4 |
29. | Preece, Ryan | 38.8 |
30. | LaJoie, Corey | 40.8 |
31. | Suarez, Daniel | 50.2 |
32. | Yeley, JJ | 55.7 |
33. | Poole, Brennan | 58.1 |
34. | Houff, Quin | 60.4 |
35. | Smithley, Garrett | 65.5 |
36. | Gase, Joey | 66.7 |
37. | Sorenson, Reed | 70.2 |
38. | Hill, Timmy | 74.7 |