Early Rankings: Bristol I, 2013

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Bristol. I compiled them by crunching:

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Talladega and Watkins Glen);
  • the loop data for the past four races;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Bristol;
  • the loop data for the past seven races at the other tracks in the Steeps track group (i.e., Dover, Darlington, Las Vegas and Homestead);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Bristol; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Steeps.

The results:

  1. Jimmie Johnson
  2. Kyle Busch
  3. Matt Kenseth
  4. Jeff Gordon
  5. Martin Truex Jr.
  6. Brad Keselowski
  7. Carl Edwards
  8. Greg Biffle
  9. Kasey Kahne
  10. Clint Bowyer
  11. Kevin Harvick
  12. Denny Hamlin
  13. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  14. Ryan Newman
  15. Joey Logano
  16. Brian Vickers
  17. Paul Menard
  18. Tony Stewart
  19. Aric Almirola
  20. Marcos Ambrose
  21. Kurt Busch
  22. Jamie McMurray
  23. Jeff Burton
  24. AJ Allmendinger
  25. Juan Pablo Montoya
  26. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  27. Bobby Labonte
  28. David Ragan
  29. Casey Mears
  30. David Reutimann
  31. David Gilliland
  32. Landon Cassill
  33. Danica Patrick
  34. Travis Kvapil
  35. Dave Blaney
  36. David Stremme
  37. Michael McDowell
  38. J.J. Yeley
  39. Joe Nemechek
  40. Josh Wise (i)
  41. Scott Riggs (i)
  42. Scott Speed
  43. Mike Bliss
  44. Terry Labonte (PC8)