Early Rankings: Phoenix I, 2015

Kevin Harvick tops my early Phoenix rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

Kevin Harvick tops my early Phoenix rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

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

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Talladega, Phoenix and Watkins Glen);
  • the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona);
  • the loop data for the past four races at Phoenix;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Richmond, MartinsvilleIndyPocono and New Hampshire);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Phoenix; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

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