Early Rankings: Pocono I, 2016

Kevin Harvick photo

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

Update: I’ve posted my final Pocono I 2016 driver rankings, which improve upon these early rankings.

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

The results:

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