Update: I’ve completed my final Fontana driver rankings.
Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Fontana. I compiled them by crunching:
- The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona and Talladega);
- the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona);
- the loop data for the past four races at Fontana;
- the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., Texas, Charlotte, Atlanta, Kansas, Chicago, Michigan and Kentucky);
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Fontana; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.
The results:
- Kevin Harvick
- Kyle Busch
- Jimmie Johnson
- Joey Logano
- Kurt Busch
- Brad Keselowski
- Matt Kenseth
- Denny Hamlin
- Carl Edwards
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Chase Elliott
- Ryan Newman
- Austin Dillon
- Kyle Larson
- Kasey Kahne
- Ryan Blaney
- Jamie McMurray
- Greg Biffle
- Clint Bowyer
- Paul Menard
- AJ Allmendinger
- Aric Almirola
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Brian Vickers
- Casey Mears
- Trevor Bayne
- Danica Patrick
- David Ragan
- Brian Scott
- Chris Buescher
- Landon Cassill
- Regan Smith
- Michael Annett
- Cole Whitt
- Michael McDowell
- Josh Wise
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Jeffrey Earnhardt