Mid-Week Rankings: Michigan I, 2012

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan. 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 Michigan;
  • 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, Charlotte and Kentucky);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Michigan; 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. Denny Hamlin
  5. Kasey Kahne
  6. Kyle Busch
  7. Kevin Harvick
  8. Carl Edwards
  9. Tony Stewart
  10. Jeff Gordon
  11. Martin Truex, Jr.
  12. Ryan Newman
  13. Mark Martin
  14. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
  15. Clint Bowyer
  16. Brad Keselowski
  17. Paul Menard
  18. A.J. Allmendinger
  19. Jeff Burton
  20. Joey Logano
  21. Marcos Ambrose
  22. Jamie McMurray
  23. Juan Pablo Montoya
  24. Regan Smith
  25. Trevor Bayne
  26. Aric Almirola
  27. Bobby Labonte
  28. Kurt Busch
  29. Landon Cassill
  30. Casey Mears
  31. David Ragan
  32. David Reutimann
  33. Travis Kvapil
  34. David Gilliland
  35. Dave Blaney
  36. David Stremme
  37. J.J. Yeley
  38. Michael McDowell
  39. Joe Nemechek
  40. Mike Bliss
  41. Tony Raines
  42. Scott Riggs
  43. Ken Schrader
  44. Josh Wise
  45. Austin Dillon(i)
  46. Stacy Compton