Mid-Week Rankings: Bristol II, 2014

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

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Sonoma, Watkins Glen and Talladega);
  • the loop data for the past four races (excluding Watkins Glen);
  • the loop data for the past four races at Bristol;
  • the loop data for the past six races at the other tracks in the Steeps track group (i.e., DoverDarlingtonLas Vegas and Homestead);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Bristol; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past six races at the aforementioned Steeps.

    Jeff Gordon tops my early Bristol rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

    Jeff Gordon tops my early Bristol rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

The results:

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