Early Rankings: Martinsville I, 2014

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 and Talladega);
  • the loop data for the past four races;
  • 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., RichmondPhoenixIndyPocono 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. Brad Keselowski
  7. Clint Bowyer
  8. Kevin Harvick
  9. Kasey Kahne
  10. Joey Logano
  11. Ryan Newman
  12. Denny Hamlin
  13. Carl Edwards
  14. Brian Vickers
  15. Kurt Busch
  16. Jamie McMurray
  17. Martin Truex Jr.
  18. Tony Stewart
  19. Paul Menard
  20. Greg Biffle
  21. Aric Almirola
  22. Marcos Ambrose
  23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  24. A J Allmendinger
  25. Austin Dillon
  26. Kyle Larson
  27. Casey Mears
  28. Danica Patrick
  29. David Ragan
  30. Justin Allgaier
  31. David Gilliland
  32. Landon Cassill
  33. Travis Kvapil
  34. David Reutimann
  35. Michael McDowell
  36. Michael Annett
  37. Josh Wise
  38. Cole Whitt
  39. Alex Bowman
  40. Joe Nemechek
  41. Reed Sorenson
  42. Ryan Truex
  43. Parker Kligerman
  44. Timmy Hill