Early Rankings: New Hampshire, 2017

Kyle Busch photo

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

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

Here are my early driver rankings for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at New Hampshire. I compiled them by crunching:

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

The results:

  1. Kyle Busch
  2. Martin Truex Jr.
  3. Kyle Larson
  4. Kevin Harvick
  5. Matt Kenseth
  6. Brad Keselowski
  7. Denny Hamlin
  8. Chase Elliott
  9. Joey Logano
  10. Jimmie Johnson
  11. Jamie McMurray
  12. Erik Jones
  13. Kurt Busch
  14. Ryan Blaney
  15. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  16. Ryan Newman
  17. Clint Bowyer
  18. Kasey Kahne
  19. Austin Dillon
  20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  21. AJ Allmendinger
  22. Paul Menard
  23. Daniel Suarez
  24. Danica Patrick
  25. Trevor Bayne
  26. #43 Car
  27. Ty Dillon
  28. David Ragan
  29. Michael McDowell
  30. Chris Buescher
  31. Landon Cassill
  32. Matt DiBenedetto
  33. Cole Whitt
  34. Corey LaJoie
  35. Gray Gaulding
  36. Ryan Sieg
  37. Reed Sorenson
  38. Jeffrey Earnhardt
  39. #51 Car