Update: I’ve posted my final Michigan II driver rankings, which improve upon these early rankings.
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, Talladega, 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 seven races at other tracks in the Large Ovals track group (i.e., Fontana, Kansas, Texas, Charlotte, 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:
- Kevin Harvick
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Carl Edwards
- Joey Logano
- Kyle Busch
- Brad Keselowski
- Matt Kenseth
- Denny Hamlin
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kurt Busch
- Austin Dillon
- Kyle Larson
- Ryan Newman
- Chase Elliott
- Jamie McMurray
- Tony Stewart
- Ryan Blaney
- Kasey Kahne
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Paul Menard
- #88 Car TBA (Bowman?)
- Greg Biffle
- AJ Allmendinger
- Trevor Bayne
- Aric Almirola
- Danica Patrick
- Clint Bowyer
- Casey Mears
- Chris Buescher
- David Ragan
- Brian Scott
- Landon Cassill
- Michael McDowell
- Regan Smith
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Cole Whitt
- Michael Annett
- Josh Wise
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- Reed Sorenson