Early Rankings: Charlotte I, 2012

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

I also made a few small adjustments to the rankings per the impressions I gleaned from watching the All Star and Showdown races and prelims last week.

The results:

  1. Jimmie Johnson
  2. Matt Kenseth
  3. Kyle Busch
  4. Greg Biffle
  5. Denny Hamlin
  6. Carl Edwards
  7. Kasey Kahne
  8. Tony Stewart
  9. Kevin Harvick
  10. Martin Truex, Jr.
  11. Brad Keselowski
  12. Mark Martin
  13. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
  14. Ryan Newman
  15. Jeff Gordon
  16. A.J. Allmendinger
  17. Jamie McMurray
  18. Clint Bowyer
  19. Paul Menard
  20. Marcos Ambrose
  21. Jeff Burton
  22. Joey Logano
  23. Juan Pablo Montoya
  24. Regan Smith
  25. Trevor Bayne
  26. Aric Almirola
  27. Bobby Labonte
  28. Kurt Busch
  29. Casey Mears
  30. David Reutimann
  31. Landon Cassill
  32. David Ragan
  33. David Gilliland
  34. Travis Kvapil
  35. Dave Blaney
  36. J.J. Yeley
  37. Michael McDowell
  38. Scott Speed
  39. David Stremme
  40. Mike Bliss
  41. Joe Nemechek
  42. Josh Wise
  43. Scott Riggs
  44. Danica Patrick
  45. T.J. Bell
  46. Cole Whitt
  47. Stephen Leicht