Update: I’ve now completed my early Daytona rankings, which improve upon these early-early rankings.
Here are my early-early driver rankings for the upcoming Daytona 500. I compiled them by crunching the loop and qualifying data for the past four plate races. I think these two metrics reflect speed, the ability to pass and the ability (and inclination) to run a lot of laps up front, all of which should give me the best chance to get in the ballpark with race-result predictions.
Note: These rankings are rough, especially because I’m not even sure yet what the final entry list will look like. I’ll update the rankings as we work our way through Speedweeks.
OK, here they are:
- Brad Keselowski
- Denny Hamlin
- Joey Logano
- Kyle Busch
- Kurt Busch
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Ryan Blaney
- Austin Dillon
- Matt Kenseth
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kyle Larson
- Chase Elliott
- Jimmie Johnson
- Jamie McMurray
- Kevin Harvick
- Clint Bowyer
- Daniel Suarez
- Erik Jones
- Trevor Bayne
- Paul Menard
- Aric Almirola
- Kasey Kahne
- Michael McDowell
- Ryan Newman
- Brendan Gaughn
- Ty Dillon
- AJ Allmendinger
- Chris Buescher
- Danica Patrick
- Landon Cassill
- Elliott Sadler
- Bobby Labonte
- Gray Gaulding
- Reed Sorenson
- Michael Waltrip
- David Ragan
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Cole Whitt
- David Gilliland
- Josh Wise
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
good work. trying for top 3 finish to play for each race.