Update: I’ve posted my final Michigan I 2016 driver rankings, which improve upon these early rankings.
Here are my early driver rankings for Sunday’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 seven races at other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., Fontana, Kansas, Texas, Charlotte and Kentucky;
- the practice and qualifying data for the past four races at Michigan; and
- the practice and qualifying data for past seven races at the aforementioned Large Ovals.
The results:
- Kevin Harvick
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Joey Logano
- Jimmie Johnson
- Brad Keselowski
- Kurt Busch
- Matt Kenseth
- Carl Edwards
- Kyle Busch
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Chase Elliott
- Denny Hamlin
- Austin Dillon
- Ryan Newman
- Kyle Larson
- Kasey Kahne
- Jamie McMurray
- Paul Menard
- Ryan Blaney
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Greg Biffle
- Tony Stewart
- AJ Allmendinger
- Aric Almirola
- Trevor Bayne
- Clint Bowyer
- Danica Patrick
- Casey Mears
- Brian Scott
- David Ragan
- Chris Buescher
- Regan Smith
- Landon Cassill
- Ty Dillon
- Michael Annett
- Cole Whitt
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Josh Wise
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- Reed Sorenson