Mid-Week Rankings: Martinsville II, 2013

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:

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