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:
- Jimmie Johnson
- Matt Kenseth
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Kyle Busch
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Danica Patrick
- Joey Logano
- Kasey Kahne
- Clint Bowyer
- Ryan Newman
- Marcos Ambrose
- Carl Edwards
- Brad Keselowski
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Jeff Gordon
- Paul Menard
- Denny Hamlin
- Greg Biffle
- Trevor Bayne
- Sam Hornish Jr.(i)
- Jamie McMurray
- Michael Waltrip
- Casey Mears
- Aric Almirola
- Jeff Burton
- Kurt Busch
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Kevin Harvick
- Austin Dillon
- David Gilliland
- Justin Allgaier(i)
- David Ragan
- Bobby Labonte
- Josh Wise
- Michael McDowell
- Dave Blaney
- J.J. Yeley
- David Reutimann
- Cole Whitt(i)
- Travis Kvapil
- Terry Labonte
- Landon Cassill
- Tony Raines(i)
- Joe Nemechek