Early Rankings: Watkins Glen, 2015

Kyle Busch photo

Kyle Busch tops my early Watkins Glen rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

Update: I’ve now completed my final Watkins Glen rankings (click here to see them).

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen. 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 at Watkins Glen;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Sonoma;
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Watkins Glen; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past four races at Sonoma.

The results:

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