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 past two races each at Daytona and Talladega, which reflects speed, the ability to pass and the ability (and inclination) to run a lot of laps up front:
- Ryan Newman
- Matt Kenseth
- Kasey Kahne
- Jeff Gordon
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Kyle Busch
- Trevor Bayne
- Tony Stewart
- Greg Biffle
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Paul Menard
- Joey Logano
- Carl Edwards
- Jimmie Johnson
- Clint Bowyer
- Danica Patrick
- Marcos Ambrose
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Denny Hamlin
- Casey Mears
- Jamie McMurray
- Aric Almirola
- Jeff Burton
- Brad Keselowski
- Kevin Harvick
- Michael Waltrip
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- David Ragan
- David Gilliland
- Kurt Busch
- Michael McDowell
- Josh Wise
- Terry Labonte
- A J Allmendinger
- Dave Blaney
- Bobby Labonte
- David Reutimann
- Travis Kvapil
- David Stremme
- Scott Speed
- J.J. Yeley
- Joe Nemechek
- Landon Cassill