Early Rankings: Homestead, 2017

Martin Truex Jr photo

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

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

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

  • The loop data for the past 15 Cup races (excluding Watkins Glen and Talladega;
  • the loop data for the past four races;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Homestead;
  • the loop data for the past six races at the other tracks in the Steeps track group (i.e., BristolDarlingtonLas Vegas and Dover);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Homestead; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past six races at the aforementioned Steeps.

The results:

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