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., Dover, Darlington, Las 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.
The results:
- Jeff Gordon
- Brad Keselowski
- Joey Logano
- Matt Kenseth
- Kevin Harvick
- Denny Hamlin
- Kasey Kahne
- Kyle Busch
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Jimmie Johnson
- Clint Bowyer
- Kurt Busch
- Ryan Newman
- Brian Vickers
- Kyle Larson
- Jamie McMurray
- Carl Edwards
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Paul Menard
- Greg Biffle
- Tony Stewart
- Aric Almirola
- Marcos Ambrose
- Austin Dillon
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- AJ Allmendinger
- Jeff Burton
- Casey Mears
- David Gilliland
- Justin Allgaier
- Danica Patrick
- David Ragan
- Michael Annett
- Cole Whitt
- Josh Wise
- Michael McDowell
- Alex Bowman
- Landon Cassill
- Dave Blaney
- J.J Yeley
- Reed Sorenson
- Ryan Truex
- David Stremme
- Joe Nemechek