Final Rankings: Daytona II, 2014

The practice speed chart numbers have long held very little predictive value at the restrictor plate races because the cars draft during plate practices. And now, unfortunately, they draft during qualifying, too, so the qualifying speed chart numbers are out the window as well.

The point? I have little new information to use to update my early Daytona rankings. I did cruise around online today to get a feel for other handicappers’ rankings and thoughts following practice and qualifying, and I then made some tweaks to my rankings. The results:

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