Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix. I compiled them by crunching:
- The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Talladega and Watkins Glen);
- the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona);
- the loop data for the past four races at Phoenix;
- the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Richmond, Martinsville, Indy, Pocono and New Hampshire);
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Phoenix; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Flats.
The results:
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kyle Busch
- Matt Kenseth
- Brad Keselowski
- Jeff Gordon
- Kevin Harvick
- Kasey Kahne
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Tony Stewart
- Kurt Busch
- Clint Bowyer
- Joey Logano
- Denny Hamlin
- Carl Edwards
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Ryan Newman
- Greg Biffle
- Paul Menard
- Aric Almirola
- Jamie McMurray
- Marcos Ambrose
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Brian Vickers
- A J Allmendinger
- Austin Dillon
- Kyle Larson
- Casey Mears
- Brian Scott
- David Ragan
- Danica Patrick
- Justin Allgaier
- David Gilliland
- Blake Koch
- Ryan Truex
- Alex Bowman
- Travis Kvapil
- Reed Sorenson
- Landon Cassill
- Michael Annett
- Dave Blaney
- Cole Whitt
- Parker Kligerman
- Josh Wise
- Michael McDowell
- Joe Nemechek
- Morgan Shepherd