Early Rankings: Atlanta, 2017

joey logano photo

Joey Logano tops my early Atlanta driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

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:

  1. Joey Logano
  2. Kevin Harvick
  3. Martin Truex Jr.
  4. Kyle Busch
  5. Jimmie Johnson
  6. Matt Kenseth
  7. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  8. Chase Elliott
  9. Denny Hamlin
  10. Brad Keselowski
  11. Kyle Larson
  12. Clint Bowyer
  13. Daniel Suarez
  14. Ryan Newman
  15. Jamie McMurray
  16. Kasey Kahne
  17. Austin Dillon
  18. Kurt Busch
  19. Ryan Blaney
  20. Erik Jones
  21. AJ Allmendinger
  22. Paul Menard
  23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  24. Trevor Bayne
  25. Aric Almirola
  26. Danica Patrick
  27. Ty Dillon
  28. Chris Buescher
  29. Michael McDowell
  30. David Ragan
  31. Matt DiBenedetto
  32. Landon Cassill
  33. Timmy Hill
  34. Cole Whitt
  35. Jeffrey Earnhardt
  36. Derrike Cope
  37. Gray Gaulding
  38. Reed Sorenson