Indianapolis: Past Winners Are Smart Choices For Brickyard

Who should you pick for the Brickyard? If you listen to NASCAR's driver rating, past winners Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Juan Pablo Montoya look pretty good.

What's that you say? Montoya didn't win the Brickyard?

That's true, he didn't win – he sped on pit road after looking like the dominant car last year and lost the race. But that's just a technicality.

So go ahead and pick one of those three, or perhaps Jeff Gordon (fifth).

But you may want to avoid drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr. (20th), Ryan Newman (26th) and Kurt Busch (27th), even though they may be tempting picks.

The complete list:

Brickyard 400 Pre-Race
For point-paying races in current and past four years, at this track.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Sunday, July 25, 2010

Driver Rating
Formula combining the following categories: Wins, Finishes, Top-15 Finishes, Average Running Position While on Lead Lap, Average Speed Under Green, Fastest Lap, Led Most Laps, Lead-Lap Finish. Maximum: 150 points per race.
Number of Races: 5

Rank	Car	Driver	Avg Finish	High	AVG DRIVER RATING
1	14	Tony Stewart	7.2	146.0	111.8
2	48	Jimmie Johnson	16.0	147.3	104.9
3	5	Mark Martin	6.2	128.9	104.8
4	42	Juan Montoya	17.3	131.7	102.0
5	24	Jeff Gordon	8.2	120.1	96.2
6	17	Matt Kenseth	13.0	117.7	93.6
7	0	Mike Bliss	11.0	93.4	93.4
8	11	Denny Hamlin	17.3	119.5	93.3
9	31	Jeff Burton	15.4	121.7	93.1
10	18	Kyle Busch	14.8	115.5	92.8
11	29	Kevin Harvick	14.4	128.0	91.9
12	9	Kasey Kahne	18.4	130.4	91.4
13	16	Greg Biffle	16.2	108.4	90.7
14	99	Carl Edwards	11.2	121.9	87.4
15	33	Clint Bowyer	13.5	100.9	83.4
16	83	Brian Vickers	17.6	114.9	81.9
17	44	A J Allmendinger	15.0	98.4	80.2
18	20	Joey Logano	12.0	79.0	79.0
19	43	Reed Sorenson	16.3	108.5	77.5
20	88	D Earnhardt Jr.	26.2	100.5	75.1
21	26	Jamie McMurray	20.6	102.1	73.3
22	12	David Stremme	20.0	77.2	72.5
23	07	Casey Mears	21.8	90.9	69.7
24	6	David Ragan	18.0	89.7	68.9
25	1	M Truex Jr.	22.8	83.2	68.4
26	39	Ryan Newman	23.2	85.6	68.0
27	2	Kurt Busch	21.6	83.4	66.4
28	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	29.0	65.0	63.7
29	96	Tony Raines	26.0	75.6	62.2
30	96	J.J. Yeley	32.7	74.5	61.6
31	71	David Gilliland	22.3	72.5	61.0
32	19	Elliott Sadler	29.4	107.2	60.7
33	00	David Reutimann	25.3	98.8	60.3
34	47	Marcos Ambrose	22.0	67.7	59.8
35	96	Bobby Labonte	27.6	74.4	58.8
36	21	Bill Elliott	23.5	79.7	57.8
37	66	Scott Riggs	27.5	80.1	56.4
38	55	Michael Waltrip	31.3	85.8	53.6
39	66	Dave Blaney	29.0	88.0	53.4
40	87	Joe Nemechek	31.0	64.7	49.0
41	7	Robby Gordon	29.4	64.7	46.3
42	82	Scott Speed	31.0	42.1	42.1
43	28	Travis Kvapil	32.7	59.5	40.9
44	98	Paul Menard	30.0	56.4	40.8
45	00	M McDowell	34.0	39.4	39.4
46	34	John Andretti	32.0	38.1	38.1
47	60	Boris Said	36.5	34.1	31.0
48	78	Regan Smith	35.0	34.8	31.0
49	70	Johnny Sauter	37.0	26.3	26.3