The 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs kick off this weekend with the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. We were last here in Sin City back in March, and then we saw Penske Racing take the top 2 spots, as Joey Logano picked up his first career Vegas win while Brad Keselowski finished 2nd. We also saw Kevin Harvick lead a good chunk of that race (88 of the 267 laps) from the pole, and we could see a similar situation play out here this weekend, as Harvick starts 3rd for Sunday night’s race.
There are quite a few statistics that go into the Power Index formula, including recent performance both overall and at Las Vegas 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.
South Point 400 Fantasy NASCAR Power Rankings
| Rank | Driver | Power Index |
| 1. | Truex, Jr., Martin | -48.2 |
| 2. | Keselowski, Brad | -43.9 |
| 3. | Logano, Joey | -43.3 |
| 4. | Busch, Kyle | -42.0 |
| 5. | Harvick, Kevin | -33.9 |
| 6. | Larson, Kyle | -30.0 |
| 7. | Hamlin, Denny | -29.4 |
| 8. | Blaney, Ryan | -25.2 |
| 9. | Elliott, Chase | -15.6 |
| 10. | Jones, Erik | -15.0 |
| 11. | Bowyer, Clint | -14.4 |
| 12. | Newman, Ryan | -13.5 |
| 13. | Busch, Kurt | -13.4 |
| 14. | Almirola, Aric | -13.2 |
| 15. | Byron, William | -6.9 |
| 16. | Menard, Paul | -6.2 |
| 17. | Bowman, Alex | -5.8 |
| 18. | Buescher, Chris | -5.3 |
| 19. | Johnson, Jimmie | -3.1 |
| 20. | Suarez, Daniel | -1.5 |
| 21. | Stenhouse, Jr., Ricky | -0.1 |
| 22. | Dillon, Austin | 2.5 |
| 23. | Hemric, Daniel | 7.5 |
| 24. | DiBenedetto, Matt | 17.1 |
| 25. | Preece, Ryan | 26.7 |
| 26. | Dillon, Ty | 30.1 |
| 27. | Wallace, Bubba | 31.7 |
| 28. | Ragan, David | 33.7 |
| 29. | McDowell, Michael | 38.7 |
| 30. | Tifft, Matt | 39.7 |
| 31. | LaJoie, Corey | 42.5 |
| 32. | Chastain, Ross | 51.3 |
| 33. | Cassill, Landon | 56.2 |
| 34. | Smithley, Garrett | 64.3 |
| 35. | McLeod, BJ | 68.7 |
| 36. | Sorenson, Reed | 75.6 |
| 37. | Yeley, JJ | 80.4 |
| 38. | Nemecheck, Joe | 82.9 |
| 39. | Gase, Joey | 90.2 |
