Wednesday night racing at Martinsville Speedway. It just sounds amazing. Now let’s hope that the rain stays away so it can actually happen! The Blu-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 is set to be a 500-lap race around this half-mile flat track. Last year, we saw that it was nearly impossible to pass the leader with the package NASCAR was running, but with this year’s new short track package, it’s less likely we see complete domination (both winners last year–Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex, Jr.–led well over 400 laps in each race).
There are quite a few statistics that go into the Power Index formula, including recent performance both overall and at Martinsville 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.
Martinsville Wednesday Night Fantasy NASCAR Power Rankings
| Rank | Driver | Power Index |
| 1. | Keselowski, Brad | -51.3 |
| 2. | Truex, Jr., Martin | -48.9 |
| 3. | Busch, Kyle | -46.7 |
| 4. | Logano, Joey | -42.5 |
| 5. | Harvick, Kevin | -39.9 |
| 6. | Elliott, Chase | -37.9 |
| 7. | Blaney, Ryan | -35.8 |
| 8. | Hamlin, Denny | -32.2 |
| 9. | Bowyer, Clint | -23.4 |
| 10. | Busch, Kurt | -22.2 |
| 11. | Almirola, Aric | -15.1 |
| 12. | Johnson, Jimmie | -9.0 |
| 13. | Kenseth, Matt | -7.0 |
| 14. | Bowman, Alex | -4.9 |
| 15. | Reddick, Tyler | -2.2 |
| 16. | Dillon, Austin | -1.4 |
| 17. | DiBenedetto, Matt | 0.7 |
| 18. | Jones, Erik | 1.5 |
| 19. | Newman, Ryan | 2.2 |
| 20. | Byron, William | 4.9 |
| 21. | Bell, Christopher | 14.6 |
| 22. | Custer, Cole | 14.8 |
| 23. | Nemechek, John H | 20.7 |
| 24. | Stenhouse, Jr., Ricky | 22.1 |
| 25. | Buescher, Chris | 24.5 |
| 26. | Preece, Ryan | 25.9 |
| 27. | Wallace, Bubba | 26.2 |
| 28. | Dillon, Ty | 29.4 |
| 29. | McDowell, Michael | 35.3 |
| 30. | Suarez, Daniel | 40.7 |
| 31. | LaJoie, Corey | 48.6 |
| 32. | Poole, Brennan | 60.0 |
| 33. | Smithley, Garrett | 64.5 |
| 34. | Houff, Quin | 65.1 |
| 35. | Yeley, JJ | 66.8 |
| 36. | Hill, Timmy | 66.9 |
| 37. | Gase, Joey | 70.4 |
| 38. | Sorenson, Reed | 77.3 |
| 39. | Starr, David | 78.4 |
