Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Kentucky. I compiled them by crunching:
- The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Talladega and Sonoma);
- the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona, Talladega and Sonoma);
- the loop data for the 2011 race at Kentucky;
- the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., Fontana, Kansas, Atlanta, Texas, Chicago, Charlotte and Michigan);
- the practice and qualifying data for the 2011 race at Kentucky; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.
The results:
- Jimmie Johnson
- Matt Kenseth
- Greg Biffle
- Kyle Busch
- Kevin Harvick
- Tony Stewart
- Kasey Kahne
- Brad Keselowski
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Carl Edwards
- Denny Hamlin
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Jeff Gordon
- Ryan Newman
- Clint Bowyer
- Marcos Ambrose
- Joey Logano
- Paul Menard
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- A J Allmendinger
- Jeff Burton
- Jamie McMurray
- Regan Smith
- Aric Almirola
- Bobby Labonte
- Michael Waltrip
- Kurt Busch
- Casey Mears
- David Ragan
- David Reutimann
- Landon Cassill
- David Gilliland
- Dave Blaney
- Travis Kvapil
- Michael McDowell
- J.J. Yeley
- David Stremme
- Mike Bliss
- Joe Nemechek
- Josh Wise
- Scott Riggs
- Ken Schrader
- Scott Speed
- Mike Skinner
- Stephen Leicht
- Stacey Compton