Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Darlington. I compiled them by crunching:
- The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona and Talladega);
- the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona and Talladega);
- the loop data for the past four races at Darlington;
- the loop data for the past seven races at the other tracks in the Steeps track group (i.e., Bristol, Dover, Homestead, Las Vegas);
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Darlington; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past seven races at the aforementioned Steeps.
The results:
- Jeff Gordon
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kyle Busch
- Greg Biffle
- Martin Truex, Jr.
- Denny Hamlin
- Kasey Kahne
- Tony Stewart
- Carl Edwards
- Matt Kenseth
- Kevin Harvick
- Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
- Ryan Newman
- Brad Keselowski
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Jeff Burton
- Jamie McMurray
- Mark Martin
- Clint Bowyer
- Marcos Ambrose
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Joey Logano
- Paul Menard
- Regan Smith
- Kurt Busch
- Bobby Labonte
- Aric Almirola
- Casey Mears
- Dave Blaney
- David Reutimann
- David Ragan
- David Gilliland
- Danica Patrick (i)
- Michael McDowell
- Landon Cassill
- Joe Nemechek
- David Stremme
- J.J. Yeley
- Scott Riggs
- Reed Sorenson
- Scott Speed
- Mike Bliss
- Josh Wise
- Mike Skinner
- Cole Whitt (i)
- Stephen Leicht