Martin Truex Jr. remains my pick to win Kansas II today in my final driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

Here are my final driver rankings for today’s Kansas II race. I compiled them by crunching the practice and qualifying data from Kansas on Friday and Saturday, and then melding it with the historical data:

1. Martin Truex Jr
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Kyle Busch
4. Matt Kenseth
5. Kyle Larson
6. Ryan Blaney
7. Chase Elliott
8. Denny Hamlin
9. Brad Keselowski
10. Daniel Suarez Continue reading →

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

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

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Cup race at Kansas. 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 Kansas;
• the loop data for the past eight races at other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., Michigan, Kentucky, Fontana, Charlotte, Texas, Atlanta and Chicagoland);
• the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Kansas; and
• the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.

The results:

1. Martin Truex Jr
2. Kyle Busch
3. Kevin Harvick
4. Kyle Larson
5. Matt Kenseth
6. Chase Elliott
7. Brad Keselowski
8. Denny Hamlin
9. Ryan Blaney
10. Jimmie Johnson Continue reading →