Early Rankings: Martinsville II, 2016

Kyle Busch photo

Kyle Busch tops my early Martinsville II driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

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

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

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Sonoma, Watkins Glen and Talladega);
  • the loop data for the past four races;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Martinsville;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., RichmondPhoenixIndyPocono and New Hampshire);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Martinsville; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

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