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