Mid-Week Rankings: Richmond II, 2016

Kevin Harvick photo

Kevin Harvick tops my mid-week Richmond II driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

Update: I’ve posted my final Richmond II driver rankings, which improve upon the below early rankings.

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

The results:

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