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:
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kyle Busch
- Matt Kenseth
- Jeff Gordon
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Brad Keselowski
- Carl Edwards
- Greg Biffle
- Kasey Kahne
- Clint Bowyer
- Kevin Harvick
- Denny Hamlin
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Ryan Newman
- Joey Logano
- Brian Vickers
- Paul Menard
- Tony Stewart
- Aric Almirola
- Marcos Ambrose
- Kurt Busch
- Jamie McMurray
- Jeff Burton
- AJ Allmendinger
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Bobby Labonte
- David Ragan
- Casey Mears
- David Reutimann
- David Gilliland
- Landon Cassill
- Danica Patrick
- Travis Kvapil
- Dave Blaney
- David Stremme
- Michael McDowell
- J.J. Yeley
- Joe Nemechek
- Josh Wise (i)
- Scott Riggs (i)
- Scott Speed
- Mike Bliss
- Terry Labonte (PC8)