Early Rankings: Richmond I, 2016

Kevin Harvick photo

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

Update: I posted my final Richmond I driver rankings today.

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond. 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;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Richmond;
  • the loop data for the past seven races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Martinsville, Phoenix, Indy, Pocono and New Hampshire);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Richmond; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past seven races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

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