The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is in Richmond, Virginia this weekend for the 9th race of the 2019 season. This is the final race before the Easter weekend break, which many Fantasy NASCAR players will probably welcome with open arms. As far as Richmond goes, it is a 0.75-mile flat track that is most similar to Phoenix, where we raced at back in March. Kyle Busch won that race, and he also won the two races we ran here at Richmond last season. In other words… if you really don’t like Kyle Busch, you should probably have a backup plan on Saturday night, because there’s a good chance he’s going to grab his fourth win of the season (and 7th at this track). Now, on to the Algorithm Finish Predictions…
Please note: there is post-qualifying inspection on Saturday afternoon, and anyone that fails will have to start from the rear. This will have an effect on the rankings, so they will be updated again once inspection is over.
There are quite a few statistics that go into the Power Index formula, including recent performance both overall and at Richmond 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.
Richmond Fantasy NASCAR Power Index Rankings
| Rank | Driver | Power Index |
| 1. | Busch, Kyle | -37.7 |
| 2. | Harvick, Kevin | -33.1 |
| 3. | Logano, Joey | -32.5 |
| 4. | Busch, Kurt | -27.8 |
| 5. | Hamlin, Denny | -25.3 |
| 6. | Truex, Jr., Martin | -25.0 |
| 7. | Keselowski, Brad | -18.5 |
| 8. | Larson, Kyle | -17.4 |
| 9. | Elliott, Chase | -15.6 |
| 10. | Johnson, Jimmie | -15.5 |
| 11. | Almirola, Aric | -12.8 |
| 12. | Suarez, Daniel | -11.5 |
| 13. | Dillon, Austin | -6.3 |
| 14. | Byron, William | -3.4 |
| 15. | Bowyer, Clint | 0.0 |
| 16. | Newman, Ryan | 0.3 |
| 17. | Bowman, Alex | 1.0 |
| 18. | Jones, Erik | 2.0 |
| 19. | Stenhouse, Jr., Ricky | 2.9 |
| 20. | Blaney, Ryan | 8.6 |
| 21. | Menard, Paul | 12.8 |
| 22. | Buescher, Chris | 14.9 |
| 23. | Dillon, Ty | 15.0 |
| 24. | Hemric, Daniel | 17.2 |
| 25. | Preece, Ryan | 19.3 |
| 26. | Wallace, Bubba | 20.4 |
| 27. | McDowell, Michael | 23.1 |
| 28. | Ragan, David | 23.8 |
| 29. | DiBenedetto, Matt | 24.2 |
| 30. | Tifft, Matt | 26.8 |
| 31. | Chastain, Ross | 37.7 |
| 32. | Cassill, Landon | 39.4 |
| 33. | LaJoie, Corey | 40.7 |
| 34. | Burton, Jeb | 51.2 |
| 35. | Currey, Bailey | 55.7 |
| 36. | Houff, Quin | 59.0 |
| 37. | Gase, Joey | 67.6 |
