Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Bristol. 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 Bristol;
- the loop data for the past six races at the other tracks in the Steeps track group (i.e., Dover, Darlington, Las Vegas and Homestead);
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Bristol; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past six races at the aforementioned Steeps.
The results:
- Kevin Harvick
- Brad Keselowski
- Matt Kenseth
- Jeff Gordon
- Joey Logano
- Denny Hamlin
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kasey Kahne
- Kurt Busch
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Carl Edwards
- Ryan Newman
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kyle Larson
- Jamie McMurray
- Clint Bowyer
- Paul Menard
- Greg Biffle
- Aric Almirola
- AJ Allmendinger
- Tony Stewart
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- David Ragan
- Austin Dillon
- Sam Hornish Jr.
- Casey Mears
- Trevor Bayne
- Justin Allgaier
- Danica Patrick
- Chris Buescher(i)
- Brett Moffitt
- David Gilliland
- Cole Whitt
- Michael Annett
- Alex Bowman
- Landon Cassill
- Ron Hornaday
- Josh Wise
- Alex Kennedy
- Michael McDowell
- Jeb Burton
- J.J Yeley
- Mike Bliss
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Brendan Gaughan