Denny Hamlin tops my mid-week Talladega II rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

Here are my mid-week driver rankings for this week’s race at Talladega. I compiled them by crunching the qualifying data from this year’s Daytona 500 (because that’s the only plate race this year in which qualifying didn’t involve drafting), and the loop data for the past three plate races. Those metrics reflect speed, the ability to pass and the ability (and inclination) to run a lot of laps up front:

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