Early Rankings: Charlotte II, 2016

Martin Truex Jr photo

Martin Truex Jr. tops my early Charlotte II driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

Update: I’ve posted my final Charlotte 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 Charlotte. 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 Charlotte;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., FontanaKansasAtlantaTexasChicagoMichigan and Kentucky);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Charlotte; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.

The results:

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