Early Rankings: Martinsville I, 2015

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

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

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

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

The results:

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