Mid-Week Rankings: Talladega II, 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 spring race at Talladega, which reflects speed, the ability to pass and the ability (and inclination) to run a lot of laps up front:

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