Mid-Week Rankings: Richmond II, 2013

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond. 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 Richmond;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Martinsville, Phoenix, Indy, Pocono and New Hampshire);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Richmond; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

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