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