Early Rankings: Michigan II, 2015

Kevin Harvick photo

Kevin Harvick tops my early Michigan II rankings.. (photo courtesy nascar)

Update: I’ve now completed my final Michigan II rankings (click here to see them).

Here are my mid-week 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 DaytonaTalladega, Watkins Glen and Sonoma;
  • 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 other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., FontanaKansasTexasCharlotte, Atlanta, Chicagoland 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. Kevin Harvick
  2. Joey Logano
  3. Brad Keselowski
  4. Kurt Busch
  5. Kyle Busch
  6. Jimmie Johnson
  7. Carl Edwards
  8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  9. Jeff Gordon
  10. Matt Kenseth
  11. Martin Truex Jr.
  12. Denny Hamlin
  13. Kyle Larson
  14. Kasey Kahne
  15. Paul Menard
  16. Jamie McMurray
  17. Ryan Newman
  18. Austin Dillon
  19. Greg Biffle
  20. Clint Bowyer
  21. Tony Stewart
  22. Aric Almirola
  23. Danica Patrick
  24. David Ragan
  25. AJ Allmendinger
  26. Ryan Blaney
  27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  28. Casey Mears
  29. Justin Allgaier
  30. Trevor Bayne
  31. Sam Hornish Jr.
  32. David Gilliland
  33. Landon Cassill
  34. Michael Annett
  35. Alex Bowman
  36. Cole Whitt
  37. Brett Moffitt
  38. Josh Wise
  39. Reed Sorenson
  40. J.J Yeley
  41. Jeb Burton
  42. Matt DiBenedetto
  43. Timmy Hill
  44. Alex Kennedy