Early Rankings: Pocono I, 2017

Martin Truex Jr photo

Martin Truex Jr. tops my early Pocono I driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

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

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Cup race at Pocono. 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;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Pocono;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Martinsville, Phoenix, Indy, Richmond and New Hampshire);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Pocono; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

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