Jimmie Johnson tops my early Sonoma driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)
Update: I’ve posted my final Sonoma 2016 driver rankings, which improve upon these early rankings.
Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Sonoma. 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 at Sonoma;
- the loop data for the past four races at Watkins Glen;
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Sonoma; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past four races at Watkins Glen.
The results:
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kurt Busch
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kyle Busch
- Carl Edwards
- Clint Bowyer
- Kevin Harvick
- AJ Allmendinger
- Joey Logano
- Brad Keselowski
- Jamie McMurray
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Greg Biffle
- Matt Kenseth
- Tony Stewart
- Ryan Newman
- Kasey Kahne
- Paul Menard
- Denny Hamlin
- Chase Elliott
- Casey Mears
- Kyle Larson
- Aric Almirola
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Danica Patrick
- Ryan Blaney
- David Ragan
- Brian Scott
- Austin Dillon
- Michael McDowell
- Chris Buescher
- Trevor Bayne
- Regan Smith
- Cole Whitt
- Josh Wise
- Landon Cassill
- Cody Ware
- Dylan Lupton
- Patrick Carpentier
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Michael Annett
This analysis unfortunately under rates the progress that the two super rookies have made. True, a road course is a different breed of cat but I doubt that Ryan Blaney finishes around 26th barring an accident that could befall any of the drivers. Chase Elliot has been running even better and a top ten is easily in his grasp.
Agreed that the two rookies have been super, but I’m not with you on Blaney at Sonoma. From what I can tell, he has very little road course experience, and maybe none at Sonoma. Will see how he looks in practice/quals, and I hope to be pleasantly surprised.
I’m more bullish on Chase, and he could score a top 10. He has significant road course experience, and he’s in Gordon’s old ride. Still, I’d like to see how he looks in p/q before I move him up. All those guys above him are pretty stout, too.