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