Early Week Driver Rankings for Martinsville

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will travel back to the east coast for some short-track racing at Martinsville Speedway. If any driver has a score to settle, it will happen at this track (Daniel Suarez vs. Michael McDowell comes to mind). Beating and banging is just part of the racing at this track. It should be exciting to watch. The STP 500 is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.

There will be no track activity for the MENCS Friday. The cars will make their first laps in the first practice at 9:30 a.m. ET (FS1) Saturday. Final practice will be at 12:30 p.m. ET (FS1).  Qualifying will be at 5 p.m. ET (FS1), after the Gander Outdoor Truck Series race. I will post my Garage Talk Notes after final practice.

My early week pick for the pole is Joey Logano. The No. 22 car has dominated qualifying at Martinsville and his has not even been close. Logano has won half of the poles at the track since 2014. As well as he is running this season, he should have a good chance to start on the front row Sunday.

Each week I use different stats in my model to create the best rankings possible to give you an edge on the completion. This week I used passed stats from Martinsville. This is a rhythm track and drivers either know how to turn fast laps or they do not. The drivers who ran well in the past will be up front Sunday. Driver rating, average running position, average finishing position and momentum from the 2019 season are the main stats I used in the model this week to complete the rankings.

Here are the early week driver rankings for Martinsville Speedway…

* I will post my final driver rankings Saturday evening.

**Stats from Driveraverages.com and NASCAR Media. Career stats from Racing-Reference.Info…

*** Photos from NASCAR Media

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