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;
- 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:
- Matt Kenseth
- Kyle Busch
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kasey Kahne
- Greg Biffle
- Denny Hamlin
- Clint Bowyer
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Kevin Harvick
- Mark Martin
- Carl Edwards
- Brad Keselowski
- Jeff Gordon
- Kurt Busch
- Tony Stewart
- Ryan Newman
- Paul Menard
- Joey Logano
- Marcos Ambrose
- Jamie McMurray
- Aric Almirola
- A J Allmendinger
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Jeff Burton
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Trevor Bayne
- Austin Dillon
- Casey Mears
- David Ragan
- Bobby Labonte
- Danica Patrick
- David Gilliland
- Travis Kvapil
- David Reutimann
- Dave Blaney
- David Stremme
- Josh Wise
- J.J. Yeley
- Michael McDowell
- Joe Nemechek
- Mike Bliss
- Scott Riggs
- Ken Schrader
I’ve got no idea how to rank the 78 this week. Fastest all weekend in practice, but clearly not a very top team. I’ve got him with about the 7th best projection.
I hear ya. Tough to discount him with all that speed. I’ve got him 6th.
I forget which major team the 78 is aligned with? RCR maybe?