Update: I’ve posted my final Atlanta driver rankings, which improve upon these early rankings.
Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta. I compiled them by crunching:
- The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Talladega, and Watkins Glen);
- the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona);
- the loop data for the past four races at Atlanta;
- the loop data for the past eight races at other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., Michigan, Kentucky, Fontana, Charlotte, Texas, and Kansas);
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Atlanta; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past seven races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.
Update 2/28/17: I’ve updated the rankings with the official Atlanta entry list.
The results:
- Joey Logano
- Kevin Harvick
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kyle Busch
- Jimmie Johnson
- Matt Kenseth
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Chase Elliott
- Denny Hamlin
- Brad Keselowski
- Kyle Larson
- Clint Bowyer
- Daniel Suarez
- Ryan Newman
- Jamie McMurray
- Kasey Kahne
- Austin Dillon
- Kurt Busch
- Ryan Blaney
- Erik Jones
- AJ Allmendinger
- Paul Menard
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Trevor Bayne
- Aric Almirola
- Danica Patrick
- Ty Dillon
- Chris Buescher
- Michael McDowell
- David Ragan
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Landon Cassill
- Timmy Hill
- Cole Whitt
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- Derrike Cope
- Gray Gaulding
- Reed Sorenson