Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Bristol. I compiled them by crunching:
- The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Talladega, Sonoma and Watkins Glen);
- the loop data for the past four races;
- the loop data for the past four races at Bristol;
- the loop data for the past seven races at the other tracks in the Steeps track group (i.e., Dover, Darlington, Las Vegas and Homestead);
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Bristol; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Steeps.
The results:
- Kyle Busch
- Matt Kenseth
- Kasey Kahne
- Jimmie Johnson
- Brad Keselowski
- Jeff Gordon
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Clint Bowyer
- Joey Logano
- Kevin Harvick
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Greg Biffle
- Denny Hamlin
- Brian Vickers
- Carl Edwards
- Kurt Busch
- Ryan Newman
- Jamie McMurray
- Paul Menard
- Aric Almirola
- Marcos Ambrose
- Jeff Burton
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Mark Martin
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Casey Mears
- David Gilliland
- Bobby Labonte
- David Ragan
- David Reutimann
- Travis Kvapil
- Danica Patrick
- Ryan Truex
- David Stremme
- Dave Blaney
- Landon Cassill
- J.J. Yeley
- Josh Wise
- Joe Nemechek
- Ken Schrader
- Scott Speed
- Michael McDowell
- Tony Raines
- Mike Bliss