A propulsion system, control system, and method are provided for optimizing fuel economy, which use model predictive control systems to generate a plurality of sets of possible command values and determine a cost for each set of possible command values of based on a first predetermined weighting value, a second predetermined weighting value, a plurality of predicted values, and a plurality of requested values. The set of possible command values having the lowest cost is determined and defined as a set of selected command values. Fuel is minimized by minimizing engine power for a requested axle power. Accordingly, a fuel consumption rate requested value is determined based on an air-per-cylinder (APC) requested value.