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 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. I’ve also crunched and included the data from Practice 2 and Qualifying last weekend:
- Matt Kenseth
- Greg Biffle
- Kasey Kahne
- Tony Stewart
- Kyle Busch
- Jeff Gordon
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Ryan Newman
- Trevor Bayne
- Marcos Ambrose
- Joey Logano
- Carl Edwards
- Jeff Burton
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Paul Menard
- Denny Hamlin
- Jimmie Johnson
- Jamie McMurray
- Clint Bowyer
- Casey Mears
- Brad Keselowski
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Aric Almirola
- Kevin Harvick
- Michael Waltrip
- Mark Martin
- Danica Patrick
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Regan Smith
- Austin Dillon
- David Ragan
- David Gilliland
- Kurt Busch
- Michael McDowell
- Terry Labonte
- Dave Blaney
- Josh Wise
- Travis Kvapil
- Bobby Labonte
- Scott Speed
- David Reutimann
- Mike Bliss
- Joe Nemechek
- J.J. Yeley