Early Rankings: New Hampshire I, 2016

Kevin Harvick photo

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

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

Here are my early driver rankings for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire. I compiled them by crunching:

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding DaytonaTalladega and Sonoma);
  • the loop data for the past four races;
  • the loop data for the past four races at New Hampshire;
  • the loop data for the past seven races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Martinsville, Phoenix, Indy, Pocono and Richmond);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at New Hampshire; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past seven races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

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