Early Rankings: Richmond II, 2017

Kyle Busch photo

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

Update: I’ve posted my final Richmond II driver rankings, 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 Cup races (excluding Daytona, Talladega, Sonoma and Watkins Glen);
  • 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 four other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., MartinsvillePhoenixPocono, Indy 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. Kevin Harvick
  4. Denny Hamlin
  5. Matt Kenseth
  6. Kyle Larson
  7. Brad Keselowski
  8. Joey Logano
  9. Jimmie Johnson
  10. Kurt Busch
  11. Jamie McMurray
  12. Chase Elliott
  13. Ryan Newman
  14. Kasey Kahne
  15. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  16. Ryan Blaney
  17. Austin Dillon
  18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  19. Clint Bowyer
  20. Erik Jones
  21. Trevor Bayne
  22. AJ Allmendinger
  23. Paul Menard
  24. Danica Patrick
  25. Daniel Suarez
  26. Aric Almirola
  27. Ty Dillon
  28. Chris Buescher
  29. David Ragan
  30. Michael McDowell
  31. Landon Cassill
  32. Matt DiBenedetto
  33. Cole Whitt
  34. Corey LaJoie
  35. Gray Gaulding
  36. Reed Sorenson
  37. Jeffrey Earnhardt
  38. Derrike Cope
  39. #51 Car – TBA