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