Update: I’ve posted my final Michigan I driver rankings, which improve upon the below early rankings.
Here are my early driver rankings for Sunday’s NASCAR 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:
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kevin Harvick
- Kyle Larson
- Kyle Busch
- Chase Elliott
- Matt Kenseth
- Joey Logano
- Brad Keselowski
- Jimmie Johnson
- Ryan Blaney
- Denny Hamlin
- Jamie McMurray
- Kurt Busch
- Erik Jones
- Austin Dillon
- Ryan Newman
- Kasey Kahne
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Daniel Suarez
- Clint Bowyer
- Trevor Bayne
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Paul Menard
- Ty Dillon
- AJ Allmendinger
- Danica Patrick
- Chris Buescher
- David Ragan
- Michael McDowell
- Darrell Wallace Jr.
- Landon Cassill
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Cole Whitt
- Corey LaJoie
- Gray Gaulding
- Reed Sorenson
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- #51 car