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