Early Rankings: Sonoma, 2017

Martin Truex Jr photo

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

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

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Cup race at Sonoma. 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 at Sonoma;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Watkins Glen;
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Sonoma; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past four races at Watkins Glen.

The results:

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