Jeff Gordon tops my early Atlanta rankings. (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, and Watkins Glen);
• the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona);
• the loop data for the past four races at Atlanta;
• the loop data for the past eight 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. Matt Kenseth
6. Jimmie Johnson
7. Denny Hamlin
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
9. Ryan Newman
10. Carl Edwards
11. Kyle Larson
12. Jamie McMurray
13. Clint Bowyer
14. Tony Stewart
15. Greg Biffle
16. Kasey Kahne
17. Martin Truex Jr.
18. Paul Menard
19. Regan Smith
20. David Ragan
21. A.J. Allmendinger
22. Sam Hornish Jr.
23. Austin Dillon
24. Aric Almirola
25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
26. Danica Patrick
27. Casey Mears
28. Justin Allgaier
29. Trevor Bayne
30. #34 Car – Driver TBA
31. Ty Dillon
32. Michael Annett
33. David Gilliland
34. Cole Whitt
35. Landon Cassill
36. Reed Sorenson
37. Alex Bowman
38. Michael McDowell
39. Ron Hornaday Jr.
40. Josh Wise
41. Jeb Burton #
42. Travis Kvapil
43. J.J Yeley
44. Matt Dibenedetto
45. Brett Moffitt
46. Mike Wallace
47. Brendan Gaughan
48. Mike Bliss