Practice Breakdown: Pocono (5-Hour Energy 500)

Two practice sessions were held this afternoon at Pocono Raceway, and those two will be the only practice time that the drivers will get before the race on Sunday. Qualifying will be Saturday afternoon and the 5-Hour Energy 500 is set to start around 1:15 PM eastern time on Sunday. You can read my Fantasy NASCAR Pocono preview that went up earlier this week at OnPitRow.com by clicking here. NASCAR changed qualifying procedures this week, so Happy Hour was the session where all teams worked on race trim because first practice was used to set qualifying order. When you see the average speed chart below, you will also find each individual driver’s ranking in Happy Hour, which should give you a good idea of who will be fast in the race. If qualifying is rained out tomorrow, the starting lineup will be set by first practice speeds.

Important Practice Notes: I didn’t get to watch much of first practice. If anything happened that I missed, please let me know. In Happy Hour, Kurt Busch hit the wall and immediately brought out the backup car. He only got to practice for about 25 minutes.

–>Like ifantasyrace.com on Facebook

The top five drivers in the first practice session were:
1. Carl Edwards – 167.729 mph
2. Paul Menard – 167.648 mph
3. Jimmie Johnson – 167.454 mph
4. Tony Stewart – 167.264 mph
5. Kurt Busch – 166.728 mph
Complete rankings of practice one can be found by clicking here.
In terms of ten-lap average, the following were fastest in first practice:
1. Juan Montoya – 161.497 mph
2. Brad Keselowski – 159.983 mph
3. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps
4. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps
5. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps

In Happy Hour, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Denny Hamlin – 166.125 mph
2. Brian Vickers – 166.067 mph
3. Carl Edwards – 166.030 mph
4. Brad Keselowski – 165.926 mph
5. Jimmie Johnson – 165.700 mph
Complete rankings of this practice can be found by clicking here.
In terms of ten-lap average, the following were fastest in Happy Hour:
1. Denny Hamlin – 162.809 mph
2. Jimmie Johnson – 162.634 mph
3. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 162.351 mph
4. Paul Menard – 162.068 mph
5. Brad Keselowski – 161.795 mph

AVERAGE PRACTICE SPEEDS:

Average practice speeds are calculated by taking the average speed of each driver in each practice and multiplying it by the number of laps ran. When you do this for each practice and add the  totals together, and then divide by the total number of laps ran, you get an average of their practice speed, instead of just the one lap statistic you see when you look at practice sheets. The order that they are in is the overall average speeds rank of the two Friday practice sessions combined. In parenthesis you will find each individual driver’s ranking in the second practice session, which is the one where all of the teams worked on race trim. 

1. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at 163.111 mph over 51 laps — (1st in Happy Hour average speed)
2. Greg Biffle at 163.099 mph over 37 laps — (10th in Happy Hour average speed)
3. Denny Hamlin at 162.983 mph over 47 laps — (2nd in Happy Hour average speed)
4. Tony Stewart at 162.884 mph over 46 laps — (3rd in Happy Hour average speed)
5. Kurt Busch at 162.805 mph over 24 laps ***includes first practice*** — (14th in Happy Hour average speed)
6. Jeff Gordon at 162.741 mph over 36 laps — (16th in Happy Hour average speed)
7. Juan Montoya at 162.640 mph over 43 laps — (4th in Happy Hour average speed)
8. Carl Edwards at 162.552 mph over 31 laps — (7th in Happy Hour average speed)
9. Kevin Harvick at 162.499 mph over 42 laps — (17th in Happy Hour average speed)
10. David Reutimann at 162.467 mph over 23 laps — (5th in Happy Hour average speed)
11. David Ragan at 162.444 mph over 46 laps — (11th in Happy Hour average speed)
12. Ryan Newman at 162.436 mph over 54 laps — (12th in Happy Hour average speed)
13. Jimmie Johnson at 162.410 mph over 66 laps — (8th in Happy Hour average speed)
14. Clint Bowyer at 162.313 mph over 37 laps — (6th in Happy Hour average speed)
15. Joey Logano at 162.306 mph over 46 laps — (18th in Happy Hour average speed)
16. Matt Kenseth at 162.278 mph over 49 laps — (20th in Happy Hour average speed)
17. A.J. Allmendinger at 162.274 mph over 40 laps — (27th in Happy Hour average speed)
18. Jeff Burton at 162.200 mph over 54 laps — (21st in Happy Hour average speed)
19. Marcos Ambrose at 162.186 mph over 42 laps — (23rd in Happy Hour average speed)
20. Regan Smith at 162.139 mph over 51 laps — (13th in Happy Hour average speed)
21. Brian Vickers at 162.107 mph over 49 laps — (26th in Happy Hour average speed)
22. Kasey Kahne at 161.963 mph over 61 laps — (24th in Happy Hour average speed)
23. Martin Truex, Jr. at 161.908 mph over 44 laps — (9th in Happy Hour average speed)
24. Jamie McMurray at 161.839 mph over 53 laps — (28th in Happy Hour average speed)
25. Kyle Busch at 161.648 mph over 48 laps — (25th in Happy Hour average speed)
26. Brad Keselowski at 161.358 mph over 64 laps — (19th in Happy Hour average speed)
27. Casey Mears at 161.232 mph over 28 laps — (15th in Happy Hour average speed)
28. David Gilliland at 161.152 mph over 27 laps — (29th in Happy Hour average speed)
29. Paul Menard at 160.876 mph over 43 laps — (22nd in Happy Hour average speed)
30. Dave Blaney at 160.302 mph over 29 laps — (30th in Happy Hour average speed)
31. Landon Cassill at 159.573 mph over 36 laps — (32nd in Happy Hour average speed)
32. Mark Martin at 159.481 mph over 55 laps — (33rd in Happy Hour average speed)
33. Mike Bliss at 158.758 mph over 45 laps — (31st in Happy Hour average speed)
34. Scott Wimmer at 158.330 mph over 14 laps — (34th in Happy Hour average speed)
35. Bobby Labonte at 155.019 mph over 28 laps — (35th in Happy Hour average speed)

Go-or-Go-Homer’s Average Practice Speeds:

1. Michael McDowell at 163.708 mph over 4 laps — (1st in Happy Hour average speed)
2. Joe Nemechek at 162.823 mph over 5 laps — (2nd in Happy Hour average speed)
3. J.J. Yeley at 162.585 mph over 7 laps — (3rd in Happy Hour average speed)
4. Scott Riggs at 161.064 mph over 11 laps — (8th in Happy Hour average speed)
5. Sam Hornish, Jr. at 160.765 mph over 24 laps — (5th in Happy Hour average speed)
6. Tony Raines at 160.712 mph over 10 laps — (4th in Happy Hour average speed)
7. Mike Skinner at 160.699 mph over 14 laps — (7th in Happy Hour average speed)
8. T.J. Bell at 159.539 mph over 26 laps — (9th in Happy Hour average speed)
9. Andy Lally at 158.786 mph over 32 laps — (6th in Happy Hour average speed)