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:
- Kyle Busch
- Jeff Gordon
- Carl Edwards
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kevin Harvick
- Kasey Kahne
- Clint Bowyer
- Matt Kenseth
- Brad Keselowski
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Kurt Busch
- Ryan Newman
- Denny Hamlin
- Brian Vickers
- Joey Logano
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Mark Martin
- Greg Biffle
- Jeff Burton
- Jamie McMurray
- Marcos Ambrose
- Paul Menard
- Aric Almirola
- A J Allmendinger
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- David Ragan
- Casey Mears
- Danica Patrick
- Landon Cassill
- Travis Kvapil
- Dave Blaney
- David Reutimann
- David Stremme
- David Gilliland
- Michael McDowell
- Josh Wise
- Joe Nemechek
- J.J. Yeley
- Mike Bliss
- Ken Schrader
- Tony Raines
- Ryan Truex
- Reed Sorenson