Update: I’ve posted my final Darlington 2016 driver rankings, which improve upon these early rankings.
Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Darlington. I compiled them by crunching:
- The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona Talladega, Sonoma and Watkins Glen;
- the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona);
- the loop data for the past four races at Darlington;
- the loop data for the past six races at the other tracks in the Steeps track group (i.e., Bristol, Dover, Homestead and Las Vegas);
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Darlington; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past six races at the aforementioned Steeps.
The results:
- Kevin Harvick
- Kyle Busch
- Carl Edwards
- Denny Hamlin
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Joey Logano
- Kurt Busch
- Matt Kenseth
- Brad Keselowski
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kyle Larson
- Jeff Gordon
- Kasey Kahne
- Ryan Newman
- Ryan Blaney
- Chase Elliott
- Austin Dillon
- Greg Biffle
- Jamie McMurray
- Paul Menard
- AJ Allmendinger
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Tony Stewart
- Aric Almirola
- Clint Bowyer
- Trevor Bayne
- Casey Mears
- Chris Buescher
- Regan Smith
- Danica Patrick
- Brian Scott
- David Ragan
- Landon Cassill
- Michael McDowell
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Michael Annett
- Josh Wise
- Cole Whitt
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- Reed Sorenson