Mid-Week Rankings: New Hampshire I, 2012

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

  • The loop data for the past 14 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Talladega and Sonoma);
  • the loop data for the past four races (excluding Daytona, Talladega and Sonoma);
  • the loop data for the past four races at New Hampshire;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Martinsville, Phoenix, Indy, Pocono and Richmond);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at New Hampshire; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

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