Early Rankings: Talladega I, 2013

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 past two races at Daytona and the past two races at 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. Ryan Newman
  3. Kasey Kahne
  4. Jeff Gordon
  5. Kyle Busch
  6. Greg Biffle
  7. Tony Stewart
  8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  9. Jimmie Johnson
  10. Joey Logano
  11. Martin Truex Jr.
  12. Carl Edwards
  13. Clint Bowyer
  14. Danica Patrick
  15. Kevin Harvick
  16. Trevor Bayne
  17. Paul Menard
  18. Marcos Ambrose
  19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  20. Casey Mears
  21. Jeff Burton
  22. Brad Keselowski
  23. Jamie McMurray
  24. Aric Almirola
  25. Kurt Busch
  26. Elliott Sadler
  27. Michael Waltrip
  28. Juan Pablo Montoya
  29. Brian Vickers
  30. Regan Smith
  31. David Ragan
  32. David Gilliland
  33. Josh Wise
  34. Michael McDowell
  35. Terry Labonte
  36. Dave Blaney
  37. Bobby Labonte
  38. Travis Kvapil
  39. David Reutimann
  40. David Stremme
  41. Scott Speed
  42. Joe Nemechek
  43. J.J. Yeley
  44. Mike Bliss(i)
  45. Landon Cassill