Early Rankings: Texas II, 2017

Martin Truex Jr photo

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

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:

  1. Martin Truex Jr
  2. Kevin Harvick
  3. Kyle Busch
  4. Chase Elliott
  5. Brad Keselowski
  6. Kyle Larson
  7. Matt Kenseth
  8. Denny Hamlin
  9. Jimmie Johnson
  10. Joey Logano
  11. Ryan Blaney
  12. Jamie McMurray
  13. Kurt Busch
  14. Dale Earnhardt Jr
  15. Erik Jones
  16. Daniel Suarez
  17. Clint Bowyer
  18. Austin Dillon
  19. Kasey Kahne
  20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
  21. Ryan Newman
  22. Trevor Bayne
  23. Aric Almirola
  24. AJ Allmendinger
  25. Paul Menard
  26. Danica Patrick
  27. Chris Buescher
  28. Ty Dillon
  29. Michael McDowell
  30. David Ragan
  31. Landon Cassill
  32. Matt DiBenedetto
  33. Corey LaJoie
  34. Cole Whitt
  35. Gray Gaulding
  36. Reed Sorenson
  37. Jeffrey Earnhardt
  38. Joey Gase
  39. Carl Long
  40. Ray Black II