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