Denny Hamlin remains my pick to win Talladega II today. (photo courtesy nascar)
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 Talladega rankings. I did cruise around online this morning to get a feel for other handicappers’ updated/final rankings, and I then made some tweaks to mine. The results:
- Denny Hamlin
- Greg Biffle
- Joey Logano
- Kurt Busch
- Kyle Busch
- Dale Earnhardt. Jr.
- Jimmie Johnson
- Jeff Gordon
- Brad Keselowski
- Kevin Harvick
- Austin Dillon
- Kasey Kahne
- Casey Mears
- Paul Menard
- Matt Kenseth
- Aric Almirola
- Marcos Ambrose
- Tony Stewart
- Brian Vickers
- Jamie McMurray
- Danica Patrick
- Clint Bowyer
- Martin Truex. Jr.
- Ryan Newman
- Carl Edwards
- Landon Cassill
- Reed Sorenson
- David Gilliland
- Michael McDowell
- Kyle Larson
- Trevor Bayne
- AJ Allmendinger
- Michael Annett
- Cole Whitt
- David Ragan
- Ryan Blaney (i)
- Travis Kvapil
- Alex Bowman
- Josh Wise
- Mike Wallace
- J.J. Yeley(i)
- Michael Waltrip
- Terry Labonte