Early Rankings: Phoenix II, 2015

Kevin Harvick photo

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

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

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, Sonoma and Watkins Glen);
  • the loop data for the past four races (excluding Talladega);
  • 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. Joey Logano
  3. Brad Keselowski
  4. Kyle Busch
  5. Kurt Busch
  6. Jimmie Johnson
  7. Martin Truex Jr.
  8. Jeff Gordon
  9. Carl Edwards
  10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  11. Denny Hamlin
  12. Jamie McMurray
  13. Kyle Larson
  14. Ryan Newman
  15. Erik Jones
  16. Kasey Kahne
  17. Clint Bowyer
  18. Paul Menard
  19. Austin Dillon
  20. Tony Stewart
  21. Aric Almirola
  22. Greg Biffle
  23. AJ Allmendinger
  24. Casey Mears
  25. David Ragan
  26. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  27. Danica Patrick
  28. Sam Hornish Jr.
  29. Justin Allgaier
  30. Trevor Bayne
  31. Landon Cassill
  32. David Gilliland
  33. Ryan Ellis(i)
  34. Cole Whitt
  35. Alex Bowman
  36. Michael Annett
  37. Brett Moffitt
  38. J.J Yeley
  39. Matt DiBenedetto
  40. Joey Gase(i)
  41. Jeb Burton
  42. Ryan Preece
  43. Timmy Hill