Early Week Driver Rankings for Michigan

The NASCAR Cup Series will travel to Michigan International Speedway this week for the Firekeepers Casino 400. This is race No. 23 on the Cup Series schedule. That means there are only four races left in the regular season. The other three races include two road course tracks (Indianapolis and Watkins Glen) and a Superspeedway (Daytona). Those races tend to be unpredictable, so the drivers better get as many points as they can this week if they want a chance to race for the 2023 championship. The Firekeepers Casino 400 can be seen Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network (streamed on NBC Sports App).

The race Sunday will be only the second race on a two-mile speedway in 2023. That last race was way back in February at Auto Club Speedway. A lot has happened since then, so it will be interesting to see how the race this week plays out.

Momentum was everything at Michigan last year in the Gen-7 car. The Drivers had to keep their momentum going in order to maintain their track position or to pass cars that lost their momentum. Once a drive lost his momentum, he fell deep into the pack and have to work his way back to the front. This type of racing is unpredictable, but it is not as bad as Superspeedway racing.

I used the data from the race last year at Michigan, the race this year at Auto Club and the data from the races on the 1.5-mile tracks (Las Vegas, Kansas and Charlotte) for the Driver Rankings. The drivers who ran well in those races should be up front Sunday.

Here are my early week driver rankings for the Firekeepers Casino 400.

Be sure to check back Sunday Morning for the updated Driver Rankings for the race at Atlanta.

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