Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s race at Talladega. I compiled them by crunching the loop and qualifying data for the 2011 and 2012 races at Daytona and Talladega, which reflects speed, the ability to pass and the ability (and inclination) to run a lot of laps up front:
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Clint Bowyer
- Jeff Gordon
- Jimmie Johnson
- Matt Kenseth
- Paul Menard
- Greg Biffle
- Jeff Burton
- Carl Edwards
- Tony Stewart
- Regan Smith
- Ryan Newman
- Marcos Ambrose
- Kurt Busch
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Trevor Bayne
- Kasey Kahne
- Brad Keselowski
- Kevin Harvick
- Joey Logano
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Jamie McMurray
- Landon Cassill
- Bobby Labonte
- Kyle Busch
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Denny Hamlin
- Aric Almirola
- Travis Kvapil
- Casey Mears
- Dave Blaney
- David Ragan
- Michael Waltrip
- David Reutimann
- Michael McDowell
- Joe Nemechek
- David Gilliland
- Terry Labonte
- Tony Raines
- David Stremme
- J.J. Yeley
- Bill Elliott [PC}
- Josh Wise (i)
- Robert Richardson (i)