Early Rankings: Atlanta, 2016

Kevin Harvick photo

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

Update: I’ve now completed my final Atlanta driver rankings.

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

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding  Daytona,  Talladega, and Watkins Glen);
  • the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona);
  • the loop data for the past four races at Atlanta;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e.,  Michigan,  Kentucky,  Fontana,  Charlotte,  Texas, and  Kansas);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Atlanta; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past seven races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.

The results:

  1. Kevin Harvick
  2. Joey Logano
  3. Brad Keselowski
  4. Kyle Busch
  5. Carl Edwards
  6. Matt Kenseth
  7. Martin Truex Jr.
  8. Denny Hamlin
  9. Jimmie Johnson
  10. Kurt Busch
  11. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  12. Ryan Newman
  13. Kyle Larson
  14. Jamie McMurray
  15. Kasey Kahne
  16. Austin Dillon
  17. Paul Menard
  18. Greg Biffle
  19. Clint Bowyer
  20. Aric Almirola
  21. AJ Allmendinger
  22. David Ragan
  23. Ryan Blaney
  24. Brian Scott
  25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  26. Danica Patrick
  27. Casey Mears
  28. Ty Dillon
  29. Trevor Bayne
  30. Chase Elliott
  31. Chris Buescher
  32. Regan Smith
  33. Landon Cassill
  34. Michael Annett
  35. Michael McDowell
  36. Cole Whitt
  37. Matt DiBenedetto
  38. Josh Wise
  39. Jeffrey Earnhardt