Early Rankings: Talladega II, 2012

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:

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