Mid-Week Rankings: Richmond II, 2012

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond. 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 Richmond;
  • the loop data for the past eight races at other tracks in the Flats track group (i.e., Martinsville, Phoenix, Indy, Pocono and New Hampshire);
  • the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Richmond; and
  • the practice and qualifying data for past eight races at the aforementioned Flats.

The results:

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