Early Rankings: New Hampshire II, 2017

Martin Truex Jr photo

Martin Truex Jr. tops my early New Hampshire II driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

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

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

  • The loop data for the past 15 Cup races (excluding DaytonaTalladega, Watkins Glen 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. Martin Truex Jr.
  2. Kyle Busch
  3. Denny Hamlin
  4. Kevin Harvick
  5. Kyle Larson
  6. Matt Kenseth
  7. Brad Keselowski
  8. Chase Elliott
  9. Jimmie Johnson
  10. Joey Logano
  11. Kurt Busch
  12. Jamie McMurray
  13. Erik Jones
  14. Ryan Blaney
  15. Ryan Newman
  16. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  17. Kasey Kahne
  18. Daniel Suarez
  19. Clint Bowyer
  20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  21. Austin Dillon
  22. Paul Menard
  23. Danica Patrick
  24. AJ Allmendinger
  25. Aric Almirola
  26. Trevor Bayne
  27. Ty Dillon
  28. Michael McDowell
  29. Chris Buescher
  30. David Ragan
  31. Matt DiBenedetto
  32. Landon Cassill
  33. Cole Whitt
  34. Corey LaJoie
  35. Brett Moffitt
  36. Reed Sorenson
  37. Jeffrey Earnhardt
  38. Derrike Cope
  39. #51 Car TBA