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:
- Matt Kenseth
- Ryan Newman
- Kasey Kahne
- Jeff Gordon
- Kyle Busch
- Greg Biffle
- Tony Stewart
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Jimmie Johnson
- Joey Logano
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Carl Edwards
- Clint Bowyer
- Danica Patrick
- Kevin Harvick
- Trevor Bayne
- Paul Menard
- Marcos Ambrose
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Casey Mears
- Jeff Burton
- Brad Keselowski
- Jamie McMurray
- Aric Almirola
- Kurt Busch
- Elliott Sadler
- Michael Waltrip
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Brian Vickers
- Regan Smith
- David Ragan
- David Gilliland
- Josh Wise
- Michael McDowell
- Terry Labonte
- Dave Blaney
- Bobby Labonte
- Travis Kvapil
- David Reutimann
- David Stremme
- Scott Speed
- Joe Nemechek
- J.J. Yeley
- Mike Bliss(i)
- Landon Cassill