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., Martinsville, Phoenix, Pocono, 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:
- Kyle Busch
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kevin Harvick
- Denny Hamlin
- Matt Kenseth
- Kyle Larson
- Brad Keselowski
- Joey Logano
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kurt Busch
- Jamie McMurray
- Chase Elliott
- Ryan Newman
- Kasey Kahne
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Ryan Blaney
- Austin Dillon
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Clint Bowyer
- Erik Jones
- Trevor Bayne
- AJ Allmendinger
- Paul Menard
- Danica Patrick
- Daniel Suarez
- Aric Almirola
- Ty Dillon
- Chris Buescher
- David Ragan
- Michael McDowell
- Landon Cassill
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Cole Whitt
- Corey LaJoie
- Gray Gaulding
- Reed Sorenson
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- Derrike Cope
- #51 Car – TBA