Early Rankings: Phoenix II, 2016

Kevin Harvick photo

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

Update: I’ve posted my final Phoenix 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 Phoenix. 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 (excluding Talladega);
  • the loop data for the past four races at Phoenix;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Richmond, MartinsvilleIndyPocono and New Hampshire);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Phoenix; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

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