Early Rankings: Chicagoland, 2013

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland. I compiled them by crunching:

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding DaytonaTalladegaSonoma and Watkins Glen);
  • the loop data for the past four races;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Chicagoland;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., MichiganKentuckyFontanaCharlotteTexas, Atlanta and Kansas);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Chicagoland; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.

The results:

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