With just four races left until the Playoffs start, it’s starting to get down to crunch time for the bubble teams. Now the question is, will one of them be able to step up to the plate this weekend at Michigan? We’ve had nine different winners over the last nine Cup Series races this year, and here at Michigan we’ve had four different winners over the last four races. The last three have all been Fords, with Kyle Larson in his Chevrolet winning the previous three back-to-back-to-back before that.
Joey Logano absolutely dominated the first Michigan race of 2019, starting on the pole and leading 163 of the 203 laps while also taking the Stage 1 checkered-green flag. That was his third win here at MIS. This time around, his teammate, Brad Keselowski is starting on the pole, and we have another Ford filling out the front row on the start with Kevin Harvick starting 2nd.
There are quite a few statistics that go into the Power Index formula, including recent performance both overall and at Michigan 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.
Consumers Energy 400 NASCAR Fantasy Power Rankings
| Rank | Driver | Power Index |
| 1. | Harvick, Kevin | -47.7 |
| 2. | Keselowski, Brad | -44.8 |
| 3. | Busch, Kyle | -43.9 |
| 4. | Busch, Kurt | -40.0 |
| 5. | Logano, Joey | -39.4 |
| 6. | Hamlin, Denny | -36.5 |
| 7. | Truex, Jr., Martin | -34.6 |
| 8. | Jones, Erik | -33.1 |
| 9. | Blaney, Ryan | -32.9 |
| 10. | Elliott, Chase | -31.8 |
| 11. | Larson, Kyle | -31.2 |
| 12. | Newman, Ryan | -18.4 |
| 13. | Johnson, Jimmie | -18.2 |
| 14. | Almirola, Aric | -15.2 |
| 15. | Byron, William | -12.3 |
| 16. | Menard, Paul | -12.1 |
| 17. | Bowman, Alex | -6.6 |
| 18. | Bowyer, Clint | 0.3 |
| 19. | Suarez, Daniel | 4.8 |
| 20. | Dillon, Austin | 7.9 |
| 21. | Stenhouse, Jr., Ricky | 9.1 |
| 22. | Buescher, Chris | 19.0 |
| 23. | Hemric, Daniel | 20.1 |
| 24. | Dillon, Ty | 28.4 |
| 25. | Wallace, Bubba | 29.7 |
| 26. | Tifft, Matt | 35.2 |
| 27. | DiBenedetto, Matt | 38.8 |
| 28. | Preece, Ryan | 40.4 |
| 29. | McDowell, Michael | 44.9 |
| 30. | Ragan, David | 49.2 |
| 31. | Chastain, Ross | 52.4 |
| 32. | Cassill, Landon | 59.8 |
| 33. | LaJoie, Corey | 60.2 |
| 34. | Theriault, Austin | 65.9 |
| 35. | Ware, Cody | 72.4 |
| 36. | Sorenson, Reed | 76.0 |
| 37. | Houff, Quin | 80.5 |
| 38. | Boyd, Spencer | 85.6 |
