Update: I’ve now completed my final Las Vegas driver rankings.
Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas. 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 Las Vegas;
- the loop data for the past seven races at the other tracks in the Steeps track group (i.e., Bristol, Darlington, Dover and Homestead);
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Las Vegas; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past seven races at the aforementioned Steeps.
Note: I haven’t found an entry list yet, so these rankings probably include drivers who won’t run at Las Vegas, and might omit drivers who will.
The results:
- Kevin Harvick
- Kyle Busch
- Joey Logano
- Jimmie Johnson
- Brad Keselowski
- Carl Edwards
- Matt Kenseth
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Kurt Busch
- Denny Hamlin
- Kasey Kahne
- Kyle Larson
- Jamie McMurray
- Ryan Newman
- Paul Menard
- Austin Dillon
- Greg Biffle
- Clint Bowyer
- Chase Elliott
- Aric Almirola
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Brian Vickers
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Ryan Blaney
- Regan Smith
- Brian Scott
- Ty Dillon
- Danica Patrick
- Casey Mears
- David Ragan
- Trevor Bayne
- Alex Bowman
- Chris Buescher
- Michael Annett
- Landon Cassill
- Michael McDowell
- Cole Whitt
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Travis Kvapil
- J.J Yeley
- Jeb Burton
- Alex Kennedy
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- Reed Sorenson
Looks good! I currently have my top 5:
1. Kevin Harvick
2. Brad Keselowski
3. Kyle Busch
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr
5. Joey Logano
Waiting on the practice and qualify data to finish my projections.