Early Rankings: Pocono I, 2012

Here are my mid-week driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Pocono. 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 Pocono;
  • the loop data for the past seven races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Martinsville, Phoenix, New Hampshire, Richmond and Indy);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Pocono; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past seven races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

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