Average Practice Speeds: Texas – Samsung Mobile 500

The schedule for this weekend was pretty different than what we usually see on a Sprint Cup weekend (at least as far as I can remember). There was a 2-hour practice session on Thursday from 5:30 to 7:30 pm (EST) followed by Happy Hour, which was one-and-a-half hours on Friday from 3:00 to 5:30 pm. This year’s Samsung Mobile 500 is set to start a little after 7:00 pm on Saturday, so the cars really weren’t on track for practice in race conditions. Take these numbers for what they’re worth in your mind.

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Important Practice Notes: Brad Keselowski had a problem early in the first practice that they took a while to diagnose. It wasn’t really reported on much, but last I heard, the team couldn’t find anything wrong but BK still said something felt wrong (and his speeds showed it). Tony Stewart hit the wall very early in Happy Hour. They brought out the backup car immediately.

In the first practice session, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Mark Martin – 189.427 mph
2. Greg Biffle – 189.221 mph
3. Kevin Harvick – 189.208 mph
4. A.J. Allmendinger – 188.930 mph
5. Regan Smith – 188.877 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

In terms of ten-lap average, the top five for first practice were:
1. Regan Smith – 180.801 mph
2. Casey Mears – 177.629 mph
3. Martin Truex, Jr. – 177.131 mph
4. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps
5. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps
Click here for the complete ten-lap average chart for practice one.

In “Happy Hour”, the fast five were:
1. Trevor Bayne – 184.641 mph
2. Greg Biffle – 184.370 mph
3. Matt Kenseth – 184.351 mph
4. Clint Bowyer – 184.269 mph
5. A.J. Allmendinger – 184.005 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

When it came to ten-lap average, the best for Happy Hour were:
1. Greg Biffle – 179.473 mph
2. Jimmie Johnson – 178.991 mph
3. Martin Truex, Jr. – 178.873 mph
4. Mark Martin – 178.780 mph
5. David Ragan – 178.774 mph
Click here for the complete ten-lap average chart for Happy Hour.

 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. I have found over the years that this is much more accurate as to whether or not someone has a car that is good for one lap or one that can consistently be fast. These numbers, however, can be skewed if a team puts new tires on frequently or rarely changes the tires. I eliminated all of the skewed laps for certain drivers when Stewart hit the wall as well of all of the laps ran by Smoke in his first car.

Go-or-Go-Homer’s Average Speeds: