Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Darlington. 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 Talladega);
- the loop data for the past four races at Darlington;
- the loop data for the past seven races at the other tracks in the Steeps track group (i.e., Bristol, Dover, Homestead and Las Vegas);
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Darlington; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past seven races at the aforementioned Steeps.
The results:
- Kyle Busch
- Kasey Kahne
- Jimmie Johnson
- Denny Hamlin
- Jeff Gordon
- Martin Truex, Jr.
- Greg Biffle
- Matt Kenseth
- Brad Keselowski
- Kevin Harvick
- Clint Bowyer
- Mark Martin
- Ryan Newman
- Carl Edwards
- Joey Logano
- Jamie McMurray
- Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
- Kurt Busch
- Tony Stewart
- Aric Almirola
- Jeff Burton
- Marcos Ambrose
- Paul Menard
- Regan Smith
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Bobby Labonte
- Casey Mears
- David Ragan
- David Reutimann
- David Gilliland
- Danica Patrick
- David Stremme
- Dave Blaney
- Travis Kvapil
- Landon Cassill
- Michael McDowell
- Scott Speed
- J.J. Yeley
- Timmy Hill #
- Joe Nemechek
- Josh Wise
- Brian Keselowski
- Mike Bliss