Mid-Week Rankings: Phoenix II, 2012

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

The results:

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