Update: I’ve posted my final Michigan II driver rankings, which improve upon the below early rankings.
Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s NASCAR Cup race at Michigan. I compiled them by crunching:
- The loop data for the past 15 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:
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kyle Busch
- Kyle Larson
- Kevin Harvick
- Denny Hamlin
- Chase Elliott
- Matt Kenseth
- Joey Logano
- Brad Keselowski
- Ryan Blaney
- Jimmie Johnson
- Jamie McMurray
- Erik Jones
- Kurt Busch
- Clint Bowyer
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Ryan Newman
- Daniel Suarez
- Austin Dillon
- Kasey Kahne
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Trevor Bayne
- AJ Allmendinger
- Paul Menard
- Danica Patrick
- Ty Dillon
- Chris Buescher
- Aric Almirola
- Michael McDowell
- David Ragan
- Landon Cassill
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Corey LaJoie
- Cole Whitt
- Reed Sorenson
- Brett Moffitt
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- #51 Car – Driver TBA
- Derrike Cope