Brad Keselowski tops my early Daytona II driver rankings. (photo courtesy nascar)

Update: I’ve posted my final Daytona II driver rankings, which improve upon the below early rankings.

Here are my early driver rankings for this week’s Daytona II race. I compiled them by crunching the loop and qualifying data for the past four plate races. Those metrics reflect speed, the ability to pass and the ability (and inclination) to run a lot of laps up front:

1. Brad Keselowski
2. Joey Logano
3. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
4. Ryan Blaney
5. Kurt Busch
6. Kyle Busch
7. Denny Hamlin
8. Kyle Larson
9. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
10. Chase Elliott
11. Paul Menard
12. Kevin Harvick
13. Martin Truex Jr.
14. Trevor Bayne
15. Austin Dillon
16. Jimmie Johnson
17. Jamie McMurray
18. Clint Bowyer
19. Matt Kenseth
20. Kasey Kahne
21. Erik Jones
22. Darrell Wallace Jr
23. Ty Dillon
24. Ryan Newman
25. Daniel Suarez
26. Danica Patrick
27. AJ Allmendinger
28. Michael McDowell
29. Chris Buescher
30. David Ragan
31. Matt DiBenedetto
32. Landon Cassill
33. Elliott Sadler
34. Cole Whitt
35. Brendan Gaughan
36. Ryan Sieg
37. Reed Sorenson
38. Corey LaJoie
39. Jeffrey Earnhardt
40. DJ Kennington