The last real unpredictable race of the season is this weekend with the 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Both Daytona and Talladega provide some great racing action, but for NASCAR Fantasy players, it can be a nightmare, as things can change in a hurry. Additionally, these races become quite unpredictable, as literally every car in the field is pretty much on an even playing field. Of course, that doesn’t mean that it is impossible to know which drivers are generally better than others here, and that’s what the Fantasy Racing Online algorithm tries to accomplish here.
There are quite a few statistics that go into the Power Index formula, including recent performance both overall and at Talladega 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.
Talladega 1000Bulbs.com 500 Fantasy NASCAR Power Rankings
| Rank | Driver | Power Index |
| 1. | Logano, Joey | -48.6 |
| 2. | Elliott, Chase | -36.9 |
| 3. | Bowman, Alex | -33.1 |
| 4. | Larson, Kyle | -27.6 |
| 5. | Almirola, Aric | -26.1 |
| 6. | Stenhouse, Jr., Ricky | -25.0 |
| 7. | Truex, Jr., Martin | -23.5 |
| 8. | Keselowski, Brad | -22.7 |
| 9. | Busch, Kurt | -15.9 |
| 10. | Bowyer, Clint | -15.7 |
| 11. | Busch, Kyle | -13.3 |
| 12. | Johnson, Jimmie | -9.7 |
| 13. | Hamlin, Denny | -6.4 |
| 14. | Newman, Ryan | -5.0 |
| 15. | Byron, William | -4.6 |
| 16. | Dillon, Austin | 0.3 |
| 17. | Harvick, Kevin | 1.1 |
| 18. | Blaney, Ryan | 1.2 |
| 19. | Jones, Erik | 4.5 |
| 20. | Menard, Paul | 4.6 |
| 21. | Suarez, Daniel | 4.6 |
| 22. | Wallace, Bubba | 5.2 |
| 23. | Preece, Ryan | 6.8 |
| 24. | Ragan, David | 8.2 |
| 25. | Dillon, Ty | 15.9 |
| 26. | DiBenedetto, Matt | 19.9 |
| 27. | LaJoie, Corey | 24.5 |
| 28. | Hemric, Daniel | 28.3 |
| 29. | Buescher, Chris | 36.0 |
| 30. | McDowell, Michael | 42.1 |
| 31. | Gaughan, Brendan | 43.9 |
| 32. | Tifft, Matt | 44.4 |
| 33. | Kligerman, Parker | 46.8 |
| 34. | Chastain, Ross | 50.2 |
| 35. | Cassill, Landon | 51.0 |
| 36. | Boyd, Spencer | 59.6 |
| 37. | Jones, Blake | 66.4 |
| 38. | Sorenson, Reed | 67.2 |
| 39. | Theriault, Austin | 70.5 |
| 40. | Gase, Joey | 74.3 |
