Early Rankings: Daytona II, 2012

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s race at Daytona. 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:

  1. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
  2. Clint Bowyer
  3. Matt Kenseth
  4. Paul Menard
  5. Greg Biffle
  6. Jeff Gordon
  7. Jeff Burton
  8. Jimmie Johnson
  9. Tony Stewart
  10. Carl Edwards
  11. Regan Smith
  12. Brad Keselowski
  13. Trevor Bayne
  14. Ryan Newman
  15. A.J. Allmendinger
  16. Kasey Kahne
  17. Marcos Ambrose
  18. Kyle Busch
  19. Joey Logano
  20. Juan Pablo Montoya
  21. Kevin Harvick
  22. Jamie McMurray
  23. Martin Truex, Jr.
  24. Denny Hamlin
  25. David Ragan
  26. Kurt Busch
  27. Landon Cassill
  28. Bobby Labonte
  29. Aric Almirola
  30. Casey Mears
  31. Michael Waltrip
  32. David Reutimann
  33. David Gilliland
  34. Dave Blaney
  35. Travis Kvapil
  36. Terry Labonte
  37. Joe Nemechek
  38. David Stremme
  39. J.J. Yeley
  40. Robert Richardson
  41. Josh Wise
  42. Bill Elliott [PC}
  43. Mike Bliss(i)
  44. Stephen Leicht