Early Rankings: Indy, 2013

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis. I compiled them by crunching:

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Talladega and Sonoma);
  • the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona and Sonoma);
  • the loop data for the past four races at Indy;
  • the loop data for the past seven races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Martinsville, Phoenix, New Hampshire, Pocono and Richmond);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Indy; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

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