Early Rankings: Charlotte I, 2013

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

In addition, I made a few adjustments to the rankings per the impressions I gleaned from watching the All Star and Showdown races and prelims last week.

The results:

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