Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland. I compiled them by crunching:
- The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Talladega, Sonoma and Watkins Glen);
- the loop data for the past four races (excluding Watkins Glen);
- the loop data for the past four races at Chicagoland;
- the loop data for the past eight races at other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., Atlanta, Texas, Charlotte, Kentucky, Kansas, Fontana and Michigan);
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Chicagoland; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.
The results:
- Jimmie Johnson
- Denny Hamlin
- Greg Biffle
- Mark Martin
- Martin Truex, Jr.
- Kasey Kahne
- Kyle Busch
- Jeff Gordon
- Carl Edwards
- Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
- Matt Kenseth
- Clint Bowyer
- Kevin Harvick
- Tony Stewart
- Brad Keselowski
- Ryan Newman
- Marcos Ambrose
- Paul Menard
- Jamie McMurray
- Joey Logano
- Sam Hornish, Jr.
- Kurt Busch
- Jeff Burton
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Aric Almirola
- Regan Smith
- Trevor Bayne
- Casey Mears
- Bobby Labonte
- David Ragan
- Travis Kvapil
- Landon Cassill
- David Gilliland
- T.J. Bell
- Dave Blaney
- Danica Patrick
- David Stremme
- Scott Speed
- J.J. Yeley
- Jason Leffler
- Michael McDowell
- Reed Sorenson
- Josh Wise
- Joe Nemechek
- Mike Bliss
- Cole Whitt (i)
- Scott Riggs