Early Rankings: Dover II, 2016

Kevin Harvick photo

Kevin Harvick tops my early Dover II driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

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

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Dover. I compiled them by crunching:

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Watkins Glen, Sonoma and Talladega);
  • the loop data for the past four races;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Dover;
  • the loop data for the past five races at the other tracks in the Steeps track group (i.e., BristolDarlingtonLas Vegas and Homestead);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Dover; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past five races at the aforementioned Steeps.

The results:

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