Update: I’ve posted my final Texas 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 Texas. 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 Texas;
- the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., Fontana, Charlotte, Atlanta, Kansas, Chicago, Michigan and Kentucky);
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Texas; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.
The results:
- Jimmie Johnson
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kyle Busch
- Kevin Harvick
- Carl Edwards
- Matt Kenseth
- Brad Keselowski
- Joey Logano
- Chase Elliott
- Denny Hamlin
- Kyle Larson
- Kurt Busch
- Ryan Newman
- Kasey Kahne
- Austin Dillon
- Jamie McMurray
- Ryan Blaney
- Tony Stewart
- Alex Bowman
- AJ Allmendinger
- Paul Menard
- Greg Biffle
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Trevor Bayne
- Danica Patrick
- Aric Almirola
- Casey Mears
- Clint Bowyer
- Brian Scott
- Chris Buescher
- David Ragan
- Michael McDowell
- Landon Cassill
- Regan Smith
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Michael Annett
- Ryan Ellis
- Cole Whitt
- Joey Gase
- Josh Wise
- Reed Sorenson