Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen. 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 at Watkins Glen;
- the loop data for the past four races at Sonoma;
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Watkins Glen; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past four races at Sonoma.
The results:
- Marcos Ambrose
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kyle Busch
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Kurt Busch
- Martin Truex, Jr.
- Carl Edwards
- Jeff Gordon
- Kevin Harvick
- Clint Bowyer
- Greg Biffle
- Kasey Kahne
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Denny Hamlin
- Jamie McMurray
- Ryan Newman
- Joey Logano
- Brad Keselowski
- Matt Kenseth
- Brian Vickers
- Jeff Burton
- Paul Menard
- Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
- Max Papis
- Casey Mears
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Aric Almirola
- Boris Said
- Michael McDowell
- Ron Fellows
- David Ragan
- Danica Patrick
- David Gilliland
- David Reutimann
- Owen Kelly
- Alex Kennedy
- Victor Gonzalez Jr.
- Travis Kvapil
- Landon Cassill
- David Stremme
- Brian Keselowski
- Dave Blaney
- Joe Nemechek
The last time that Brian Vickers was behind the wheel of a Sprint Cup car he went to victory lane (Loudon), but I’ll tell you right now that that isn’t going to happen on Sunday. There’s no doubt in my mind that this team has the capabilities of running top 15 at the Glen this weekend, but it would surprise me if Vickers was able to get anywhere close to the top 5. He might be able to sneak into the top 10, but even that would be a little surprising. The #55 Toyota was 8th on the speed chart in Happy Hour and has to get a little boost in these rankings because the other Michael Waltrip Racing cars are bad fast. That being said, Vickers hasn’t had a top 10 finish here at The Glen since 2005 and I don’t see that changing on Sunday. He ran a respectable race at Sonoma back in June, finishing 13th after starting all the way back in 34th.