Early Rankings: Richmond I, 2017

Kyle Busch photo

Kyle Busch tops my early Richmond I driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

Update: I’ve posted my final driver rankings for Richmond I, which improve upon the below early rankings.

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Cup race at Richmond. I compiled them by crunching:

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona and Talladega);
  • the loop data for the past four races;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Richmond;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Martinsville, Phoenix, Indy, Pocono and New Hampshire);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Richmond; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

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