We roll into Kansas Speedway this weekend for the Digital Ally 400 and the 12th race of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Yep, after Saturday night, we’re officially 1/3rd of the way through this season, and almost halfway to the ten Playoff races. The Digital Ally 400 will be a Saturday night race under the lights, and will also be the fourth race at a 1.5-mile track this year. Typically we see the same familiar faces up front at tracks of this length.
This weekend, NASCAR is going with the condensed schedule again, and there will be post-qualifying inspection on Saturday afternoon. That will change the starting lineup because any car that fails will have to start from the rear. These Power Rankings/Algorithm Predicted Finishes have been updated after inspection.
There are quite a few statistics that go into the Power Index formula, including recent performance both overall and at Kansas 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.
Kansas Fantasy NASCAR Power Index Rankings
| Rank | Driver | Power Index |
| 1. | Harvick, Kevin | -60.0 |
| 2. | Busch, Kyle | -56.9 |
| 3. | Truex, Jr., Martin | -46.2 |
| 4. | Busch, Kurt | -37.8 |
| 5. | Bowyer, Clint | -28.3 |
| 6. | Keselowski, Brad | -27.4 |
| 7. | Logano, Joey | -26.0 |
| 8. | Bowman, Alex | -24.8 |
| 9. | Jones, Erik | -20.6 |
| 10. | Elliott, Chase | -17.8 |
| 11. | Almirola, Aric | -17.5 |
| 12. | Dillon, Austin | -16.5 |
| 13. | Hamlin, Denny | -16.4 |
| 14. | Blaney, Ryan | -15.5 |
| 15. | Johnson, Jimmie | -6.6 |
| 16. | Larson, Kyle | -5.9 |
| 17. | Stenhouse, Jr., Ricky | 5.6 |
| 18. | Menard, Paul | 5.6 |
| 19. | Suarez, Daniel | 5.8 |
| 20. | Newman, Ryan | 7.0 |
| 21. | Buescher, Chris | 8.4 |
| 22. | Dillon, Ty | 23.2 |
| 23. | Hemric, Daniel | 25.3 |
| 24. | Byron, William | 29.2 |
| 25. | Ragan, David | 29.2 |
| 26. | Reddick, Tyler | 31.3 |
| 27. | DiBenedetto, Matt | 31.5 |
| 28. | Preece, Ryan | 33.0 |
| 29. | Wallace, Bubba | 33.2 |
| 30. | McDowell, Michael | 47.2 |
| 31. | LaJoie, Corey | 48.1 |
| 32. | Cassill, Landon | 53.4 |
| 33. | Tifft, Matt | 56.8 |
| 34. | Chastain, Ross | 57.9 |
| 35. | Currey, Bayley | 66.8 |
| 36. | Ware, Cody | 68.4 |
| 37. | Houff, Quin | 70.2 |
| 38. | Hill, Timmy | 77.5 |
| 39. | Gase, Joey | 81.4 |
| 40. | Sorenson, Reed | 89.7 |
