The NASCAR Cup Series hits Darlington Raceway for the third time this season on Sunday night as the 2020 Playoffs kick off. The last time we were here was back in May, and surprise, surprise, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick were the two winners. They’re once again the heavy favorites this weekend for the annual Southern 500–but the necessarily algorithm doesn’t agree with that entirely.
There are quite a few statistics that go into the Power Index formula, including recent performance both overall and at Darlington 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.
Darlington Southern 500 Fantasy NASCAR Power Rankings
| Rank | Driver | Power Index |
| 1. | Truex, Jr., Martin | -47.4 |
| 2. | Hamlin, Denny | -46.0 |
| 3. | Harvick, Kevin | -44.6 |
| 4. | Elliott, Chase | -35.4 |
| 5. | Keselowski, Brad | -30.8 |
| 6. | Logano, Joey | -29.9 |
| 7. | Busch, Kyle | -28.9 |
| 8. | Bowman, Alex | -20.4 |
| 9. | Almirola, Aric | -20.1 |
| 10. | Jones, Erik | -16.9 |
| 11. | Bowyer, Clint | -11.7 |
| 12. | Reddick, Tyler | -10.9 |
| 13. | Byron, William | -10.5 |
| 14. | Dillon, Austin | -8.9 |
| 15. | Johnson, Jimmie | -7.2 |
| 16. | Blaney, Ryan | -6.5 |
| 17. | Busch, Kurt | -5.0 |
| 18. | DiBenedetto, Matt | -4.2 |
| 19. | Buescher, Chris | 6.4 |
| 20. | Kenseth, Matt | 8.0 |
| 21. | Bell, Christopher | 10.3 |
| 22. | Newman, Ryan | 16.5 |
| 23. | Wallace, Bubba | 18.9 |
| 24. | Custer, Cole | 20.5 |
| 25. | McDowell, Michael | 22.9 |
| 26. | Dillon, Ty | 23.7 |
| 27. | Nemechek, John H | 27.7 |
| 28. | Preece, Ryan | 30.1 |
| 29. | Stenhouse, Jr., Ricky | 31.8 |
| 30. | LaJoie, Corey | 35.6 |
| 31. | Suarez, Daniel | 37.9 |
| 32. | Chastain, Ross | 44.9 |
| 33. | Poole, Brennan | 53.8 |
| 34. | Yeley, JJ | 53.8 |
| 35. | Houff, Quin | 57.6 |
| 36. | Hill, Timmy | 58.7 |
| 37. | Bilicki, Josh | 59.5 |
| 38. | Gase, Joey | 60.0 |
| 39. | Davison, James | 62.7 |
