As the NASCAR Cup Series season continues on, the Playoffs are now becoming a more prominent discussion piece, as we’re now just ten races away from the postseason starting. That final leg of the journey starts right here at Kentucky Speedway with the Quaker State 400 on Sunday. Kentucky is a relatively new track on the schedule, as the Cup Series didn’t race here until 2011. In those nine races, we’ve seen five different winners: Brad Keselowski (three times), Martin Truex, Jr. (two times), Kyle Busch (two times), Kurt Busch, and Matt Kenseth.
There are quite a few statistics that go into the Power Index formula, including recent performance both overall and at Kentucky 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.
Kentucky Fantasy NASCAR Power Rankings
| Rank | Driver | Power Index |
| 1. | Elliott, Chase | -42.3 |
| 2. | Harvick, Kevin | -41.8 |
| 3. | Truex, Jr., Martin | -35.3 |
| 4. | Blaney, Ryan | -35.0 |
| 5. | Busch, Kyle | -34.9 |
| 6. | Keselowski, Brad | -32.6 |
| 7. | Busch, Kurt | -30.0 |
| 8. | Hamlin, Denny | -25.6 |
| 9. | Logano, Joey | -24.2 |
| 10. | Almirola, Aric | -21.2 |
| 11. | Jones, Erik | -16.1 |
| 12. | Byron, William | -14.8 |
| 13. | Bowman, Alex | -14.1 |
| 14. | DiBenedetto, Matt | -9.2 |
| 15. | Reddick, Tyler | -9.2 |
| 16. | Bowyer, Clint | -4.5 |
| 17. | Johnson, Jimmie | -2.8 |
| 18. | Bell, Christopher | 1.1 |
| 19. | Kenseth, Matt | 5.0 |
| 20. | Dillon, Austin | 6.6 |
| 21. | Stenhouse, Jr., Ricky | 11.3 |
| 22. | Custer, Cole | 13.1 |
| 23. | McDowell, Michael | 15.4 |
| 24. | Buescher, Chris | 15.7 |
| 25. | Newman, Ryan | 18.4 |
| 26. | Wallace, Bubba | 22.0 |
| 27. | Nemechek, John H | 23.9 |
| 28. | Preece, Ryan | 25.0 |
| 29. | Dillon, Ty | 28.6 |
| 30. | LaJoie, Corey | 29.7 |
| 31. | Suarez, Daniel | 37.6 |
| 32. | Poole, Brennan | 40.2 |
| 33. | Houff, Quin | 41.1 |
| 34. | Yeley, JJ | 48.6 |
| 35. | Smithley, Garrett | 52.9 |
| 36. | Bilicki, Josh | 53.5 |
| 37. | Gase, Joey | 55.7 |
| 38. | Hill, Timmy | 60.2 |
