Early Rankings: Michigan I, 2016

Kevin Harvick photo

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

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., FontanaKansasTexasCharlotte 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:

  1. Kevin Harvick
  2. Martin Truex Jr.
  3. Joey Logano
  4. Jimmie Johnson
  5. Brad Keselowski
  6. Kurt Busch
  7. Matt Kenseth
  8. Carl Edwards
  9. Kyle Busch
  10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  11. Chase Elliott
  12. Denny Hamlin
  13. Austin Dillon
  14. Ryan Newman
  15. Kyle Larson
  16. Kasey Kahne
  17. Jamie McMurray
  18. Paul Menard
  19. Ryan Blaney
  20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  21. Greg Biffle
  22. Tony Stewart
  23. AJ Allmendinger
  24. Aric Almirola
  25. Trevor Bayne
  26. Clint Bowyer
  27. Danica Patrick
  28. Casey Mears
  29. Brian Scott
  30. David Ragan
  31. Chris Buescher
  32. Regan Smith
  33. Landon Cassill
  34. Ty Dillon
  35. Michael Annett
  36. Cole Whitt
  37. Matt DiBenedetto
  38. Josh Wise
  39. Jeffrey Earnhardt
  40. Reed Sorenson