Early Rankings: Phoenix I, 2013

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix. 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 Phoenix;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Richmond, Martinsville, Indy, Pocono and New Hampshire);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Phoenix; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

  1. Denny Hamlin
  2. Jimmie Johnson
  3. Kyle Busch
  4. Kasey Kahne
  5. Jeff Gordon
  6. Mark Martin
  7. Brad Keselowski
  8. Clint Bowyer
  9. Martin Truex, Jr.
  10. Tony Stewart
  11. Kevin Harvick
  12. Greg Biffle
  13. Ryan Newman
  14. Matt Kenseth
  15. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
  16. Carl Edwards
  17. Paul Menard
  18. Joey Logano
  19. Kurt Busch
  20. Aric Almirola
  21. Marcos Ambrose
  22. Juan Pablo Montoya
  23. Jeff Burton
  24. A.J. Allmendinger
  25. Jamie McMurray
  26. Bobby Labonte
  27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  28. Danica Patrick
  29. Casey Mears
  30. David Ragan
  31. David Reutimann
  32. Travis Kvapil
  33. David Gilliland
  34. Dave Blaney
  35. Michael McDowell
  36. David Stremme
  37. Joe Nemechek
  38. Josh Wise
  39. Mike Bliss
  40. J.J. Yeley
  41. Scott Riggs
  42. Scott Speed
  43. Ken Schrader

Note: I updated these Tuesday to reflect the entry list.