Update: I’ve now completed my final Darlington rankings (click here to see them).
Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Darlington. I compiled them by crunching:
- The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona Talladega, Sonoma and Watkins Glen;
- the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona);
- the loop data for the past four races at Darlington;
- the loop data for the past seven races at the other tracks in the Steeps track group (i.e., Bristol, Dover, Homestead and Las Vegas);
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Darlington; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past seven races at the aforementioned Steeps.
The results:
- Kevin Harvick
- Kyle Busch
- Denny Hamlin
- Jimmie Johnson
- Joey Logano
- Carl Edwards
- Matt Kenseth
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Jeff Gordon
- Brad Keselowski
- Kurt Busch
- Kasey Kahne
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Ryan Newman
- Kyle Larson
- Jamie McMurray
- Clint Bowyer
- Paul Menard
- Greg Biffle
- Austin Dillon
- Tony Stewart
- Aric Almirola
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- David Ragan
- Justin Allgaier
- Casey Mears
- Sam Hornish Jr.
- Chase Elliott
- Danica Patrick
- Ryan Blaney
- Trevor Bayne
- Landon Cassill
- David Gilliland
- Brett Moffitt
- Michael Annett
- Josh Wise
- Alex Bowman
- Cole Whitt
- Travis Kvapil
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Reed Sorenson
- J.J Yeley
- Jeb Burton
- Timmy Hill
- #30 Car, Driver TBA