Early Rankings: Texas I, 2012

Here are my mid-week driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas. I compiled them by crunching:

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona and Talladega);
  • the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona and Talladega);
  • 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. Jimmie Johnson
  2. Greg Biffle
  3. Matt Kenseth
  4. Tony Stewart
  5. Carl Edwards
  6. Kyle Busch
  7. Clint Bowyer
  8. Ryan Newman
  9. Jeff Gordon
  10. Kevin Harvick
  11. Denny Hamlin
  12. Brad Keselowski
  13. Kasey Kahne
  14. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
  15. Martin Truex, Jr.
  16. A.J. Allmendinger
  17. Mark Martin
  18. Paul Menard
  19. Jeff Burton
  20. Marcos Ambrose
  21. Jamie McMurray
  22. Juan Pablo Montoya
  23. Regan Smith
  24. Joey Logano
  25. Trevor Bayne
  26. Aric Almirola
  27. Bobby Labonte
  28. Casey Mears
  29. David Ragan
  30. David Reutimann
  31. Landon Cassill
  32. Kurt Busch
  33. Travis Kvapil
  34. David Gilliland
  35. Dave Blaney
  36. Michael McDowell
  37. J.J. Yeley
  38. Mike Bliss
  39. Joe Nemechek
  40. Scott Speed
  41. David Stremme
  42. Josh Wise
  43. Scott Riggs
  44. Hermie Sadler
  45. Stacy Compton