Mid-Week Rankings: Atlanta, 2014

Jeff Gordon is the clear early favorite at Atlanta this week. (photo courtesy nascar)

Jeff Gordon is the clear early favorite at Atlanta this week. (photo courtesy nascar)

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

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding  Daytona,  Talladega,  Sonoma and Watkins Glen);
  • the loop data for the past four races (excluding Watkins Glen);
  • the loop data for the past four races at Atlanta;
  • the loop data for the past seven races at other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e.,  Michigan,  Kentucky,  Fontana,  Charlotte,  Texas, and  Kansas);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Atlanta; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past seven races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.

The results:

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