Early Rankings: Sonoma, 2012

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Sonoma, Calif. I compiled them by crunching:

  • The loop data for the past 14 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona and Talladega);
  • the loop data for the past four races at Sonoma;
  • the loop data for the past four races at Watkins Glen;
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Sonoma; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past four races at Watkins Glen.

The results:

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