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