Oh, Atlanta. Many people will remember the first time the Cup Series was at Atlanta earlier this year; on Wednesday, everything was normal, on Thursday, the plan was to race without fans, Friday they were planning on racing Saturday, then eventually it got cancelled. Well we’re back and the forecast looks great for an awesome QuikTrip Folds of Honor 500 on Sunday! Atlanta Motor Speedway always produces solid racing (for a 1.5-mile track), and we typically see a lot of the same faces finishing up front. That’s how the algorithm sees it as well, as you can see below, the top seven drivers are all -40 or lower on the Power Index. That means they’re all very close and could technically have a shot to win.
There are quite a few statistics that go into the Power Index formula, including recent performance both overall and at Atlanta 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.
Atlanta QuikTrip Folds of Honor 500 Fantasy NASCAR Power Rankings
| Rank | Driver | Power Index |
| 1. | Keselowski, Brad | -47.2 |
| 2. | Harvick, Kevin | -46.5 |
| 3. | Elliott, Chase | -45.2 |
| 4. | Logano, Joey | -43.1 |
| 5. | Busch, Kyle | -42.5 |
| 6. | Truex, Jr., Martin | -42.4 |
| 7. | Busch, Kurt | -40.9 |
| 8. | Jones, Erik | -38.6 |
| 9. | Bowman, Alex | -28.3 |
| 10. | Blaney, Ryan | -18.6 |
| 11. | Hamlin, Denny | -18.3 |
| 12. | Johnson, Jimmie | -18.2 |
| 13. | Almirola, Aric | -15.7 |
| 14. | Bowyer, Clint | -14.5 |
| 15. | Reddick, Tyler | -13.3 |
| 16. | Byron, William | -4.9 |
| 17. | DiBenedetto, Matt | -2.5 |
| 18. | Newman, Ryan | 2.1 |
| 19. | Dillon, Austin | 3.1 |
| 20. | Bell, Christopher | 7.7 |
| 21. | Kenseth, Matt | 7.8 |
| 22. | Buescher, Chris | 9.0 |
| 23. | Stenhouse, Jr., Ricky | 11.0 |
| 24. | Custer, Cole | 15.8 |
| 25. | Nemechek, John H | 20.8 |
| 26. | Preece, Ryan | 21.5 |
| 27. | Dillon, Ty | 28.3 |
| 28. | Wallace, Bubba | 30.1 |
| 29. | McDowell, Michael | 36.2 |
| 30. | LaJoie, Corey | 36.5 |
| 31. | Suarez, Daniel | 45.2 |
| 32. | Poole, Brennan | 46.8 |
| 33. | Houff, Quin | 49.2 |
| 34. | Yeley, JJ | 53.5 |
| 35. | Hill, Timmy | 56.0 |
| 36. | Bilicki, Josh | 59.7 |
| 37. | Gase, Joey | 60.1 |
| 38. | Smithley, Garrett | 66.5 |
| 39. | Sorenson, Reed | 68.4 |
| 40. | McLeod, BJ | 78.2 |
