Early Rankings: Kansas I, 2013

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Kansas. 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;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Kansas;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., Fontana, Charlotte, Atlanta, Texas, Chicago, Michigan and Kentucky);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Kansas; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.

The results:

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