Kevin Harvick tops my early All Star Race driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup All Star and Sprint Showdown races at Charlotte. 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 Talladega);
• the loop data for the past four races at Charlotte;
• the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., Fontana, Kansas, Atlanta, Texas, Chicago, Michigan and Kentucky);
• the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Charlotte; and
• the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.

Note: This early list doesn’t include whoever gets into the All Star race via the fan vote.

The results for the All Star race:

1. Kevin Harvick
2. Carl Edwards
3. Martin Truex Jr.
4. Kyle Busch
5. Matt Kenseth
6. Joey Logano
7. Kurt Busch
8. Jimmie Johnson
9. Brad Keselowski
10. Denny Hamlin
11. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
12. Ryan Newman
13. Kasey Kahne
14. Jamie McMurray
15. Tony Stewart

The results for the Showdown:

1. Austin Dillon
2. Chase Elliott
   

   Austin Dillon tops my early Showdown driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

3. Ryan Blaney
4. Kyle Larson
5. Greg Biffle
6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
7. Paul Menard
8. Aric Almirola
9. AJ Allmendinger
10. Clint Bowyer
11. Trevor Bayne
12. Danica Patrick
13. Casey Mears
14. Brian Scott
15. David Ragan
16. Chris Buescher
17. Landon Cassill
18. Regan Smith
19. Matt DiBenedetto
20. Michael McDowell
21. Michael Annett
22. Cole Whitt
23. Josh Wise
24. Jeffrey Earnhardt
25. Reed Sorenson