Mid-Week Rankings: Watkins Glen, 2016

Kyle Busch photo

Kyle Busch tops my mid-week Watkins Glen driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

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

Here are my mid-week driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen. 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 Watkins Glen;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Sonoma;
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Watkins Glen; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past four races at Sonoma.

The results:

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