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