Top Talladega Pick According To Driver Rating Stat Is...

Everyone knows predicting restrictor-plate races is risky business. If you threw the top 25 or 30 drivers' names in a hat and pulled one out, you'd have just as good of a chance as picking the winner as trying to made an educated guess.

Still, for those of you who want to try doing research, we present you with this week's driver rating.

For the first time all Chase long, Jimmie Johnson is not No. 1 (in fact, he's not even in the top 10).

But No. 1 isn't Dale Earnhardt Jr., either – it's Denny Hamlin.

Did you see that coming? We didn't.

Here are the full rankings:

AMP Energy Juice 500 Pre-Race
For point-paying races in current and past four years, at this track.
Talladega Superspeedway
Sunday, October 31, 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: 11

Rank	Car   	Driver	   Avg Finish	High 	AVG DRIVER RATING
1	11	Denny Hamlin	19.3	125.0	95.9
2	88	D Earnhardt Jr.	20.0	119.0	93.3
3	6	David Ragan	13.3	121.5	92.5
4	83	Brian Vickers	17.6	107.6	89.6
5	14	Tony Stewart	16.1	117.2	89.0
6	31	Jeff Burton	19.6	101.0	87.1
7	24	Jeff Gordon	20.6	135.5	86.0
8	20	Joey Logano	16.0	91.2	85.3
9	2	Kurt Busch	12.6	107.3	85.0
10	1	Jamie McMurray	17.7	110.5	84.4
11	48	Jimmie Johnson	15.4	117.2	83.6
12	42	Juan Montoya	16.4	102.9	82.5
13	12	Brad Keselowski	14.3	98.9	81.8
14	17	Matt Kenseth	18.2	120.1	81.7
15	19	Elliott Sadler	20.4	105.0	80.1
16	18	Kyle Busch	23.2	112.7	79.7
17	39	Ryan Newman	20.7	111.3	76.6
18	29	Kevin Harvick	16.5	101.9	75.3
19	56	M Truex Jr.	26.9	91.9	74.5
20	66	Jeff Green	15.5	86.1	74.3
21	07	Casey Mears	20.9	91.4	73.6
22	8	Aric Almirola	25.3	105.3	73.4
23	34	Travis Kvapil	17.3	91.9	71.5
24	00	M McDowell	26.0	70.9	70.9
25	36	Scott Riggs	20.8	90.6	70.1
26	16	Greg Biffle	21.9	89.7	68.9
27	99	Carl Edwards	20.7	103.4	67.4
28	55	Michael Waltrip	22.2	100.7	66.7
29	9	Kasey Kahne	20.4	98.7	66.3
30	00	David Reutimann	25.3	85.1	66.2
31	98	Paul Menard	26.4	115.4	65.9
32	33	Mike Wallace	22.6	76.7	65.9
33	47	Marcos Ambrose	25.0	81.4	65.1
34	26	David Stremme	25.0	85.0	64.8
35	5	Mark Martin	27.6	85.5	64.7
36	33	Clint Bowyer	21.4	90.7	64.3
37	78	Regan Smith	25.8	79.1	63.7
38	82	Scott Speed	15.7	77.3	63.4
39	71	Bobby Labonte	20.8	81.1	62.9
40	18	J.J. Yeley	21.8	84.0	62.7
41	43	Reed Sorenson	24.1	91.8	61.4
42	87	Joe Nemechek	26.4	85.2	60.9
43	7	Robby Gordon	21.9	98.4	60.7
44	71	David Gilliland	23.5	94.4	60.6
45	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	33.3	73.5	59.0
46	36	Johnny Sauter	24.8	78.8	58.7
47	45	Terry Labonte	17.0	55.7	55.7
48	70	Tony Raines	20.7	81.0	55.2
49	11	Jason Leffler	26.0	53.4	53.4
50	66	Dave Blaney	24.4	87.2	53.2
51	09	Mike Bliss	26.0	72.8	51.9
52	60	Boris Said	31.0	53.5	51.1
53	27	J Villeneuve	21.0	50.5	50.5
54	61	Kevin Lepage	29.0	60.9	49.7
55	43	AJ Allmendinger	29.3	74.7	49.0
56	96	Ken Schrader	27.1	80.2	48.5
57	34	John Andretti	27.7	47.4	46.0
58	37	Richardson Jr.	22.0	48.7	42.2
59	13	Max Papis	29.0	50.0	42.1
60	10	P Carpentier	31.0	36.6	36.6
61	00	Hermie Sadler	36.0	41.0	35.0
62	38	Kevin Conway	30.0	32.4	32.4
63	27	K Shelmerdine	41.0	31.3	31.3
64	74	Derrike Cope	43.0	27.0	27.0