Early Week Driver Rankings for Richmond

The MENCS Playoffs kicked off with a wild race in Las Vegas. Many of the favorites for the championship find themselves needing a good run this week at Richmond to avoid being in a must win situation in Charlotte. The race this with is Saturday night at 7:30pm ET on NBC Sports Network.

The MENCS will have two practices Friday (11:30am ET and 12:30pm ET NBCSN). Qualifying will be Friday evening at 6 PM ET on NBCSN.

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 the results from the flat track races, Average Finishing Position at Richmond, Driver Ranking at Richmond, Test Session Speeds at Richmond, Driver Ranking in the last in the last 6 races, Average Finishing Position in the last 6 races (We want drivers who have momentum) to determine my rankings.

My early week pick for the pole is Denny Hamlin. The No. 11 team was one of the teams who participated in the two-day tire test t Richmond. Hamlin posted the 2^nd-fastest speed in that test. Hamlin has a series-high 9 poles at his home track. He has won the pole 3 of the last 6 races this season so he is my pick to start up front Saturday night.

Here are the early week driver rankings for Richmond…

* I will post my final driver rankings after qualifying Friday evening.

*Stats from Driveraverages.com and career stats from Racing-Reference.Info…

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