Mid-Week Rankings: Bristol II, 2012

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

  • The loop data for the past 15 Sprint Cup races (excluding Daytona, Talladega, Sonoma and Watkins Glen);
  • the loop data for the past four races (excluding Watkins Glen);
  • the loop data for the past four races at Bristol;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at the other tracks in the Steeps track group (i.e., Dover, Darlington, Las Vegas and Homestead);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Bristol; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Steeps.

The results:

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