Early Rankings: Atlanta, 2013

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

The results:

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