Average Practice Speeds: Dover – FedEx 400

Well, except for the time that the few rain drops were falling at the beginning of first practice, the drivers pretty much got the entire scheduled three hours of practice time on Friday at Dover. As to be expected, DW and company kept giving credit to the “vortex theory,” although people that actually understand the weather have said that the theory is not possible. Surprisingly, the NASCAR.com Live Leaderboard ran smoothly this weekend–except for a hiccup in the first 30 minutes of Happy Hour–so you will find average speeds below. I’ll be using those as well as ten-lap averages when I make my final predictions on Saturday after qualifying, which is scheduled to start around noon eastern time. Be sure to follow me on Twitter (@FanNASCARPredic). I post my Yahoo! preliminary roster as well as the final roster every week.

Get the ifantasyrace advantage for full / exclusive ifantasyrace.com content

Important Practice Notes: Mike Skinner spun out and hit the wall in first practice and the team withdrew from the event because of the damage. Carl Edwards kept mentioning “the problem” on the radio and to reporters but never revealed what the exact issue was with his #99 Ford–or whether one actually existed (I kind of thought it was a joke he was playing).

In the first practice session, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Mark Martin – 159.200 mph
2. Denny Hamlin – 158.926 mph
3. Martin Truex, Jr. – 158.527 mph
4. Kyle Busch – 158.444 mph
5. Greg Biffle – 158.367 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

In terms of ten-lap average, the top five for first practice were:
1. Paul Menard – 153.924 mph
2. Brad Keselowski – 153.770 mph
3. A.J. Allmendinger – 153.385 mph
4. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps.
5. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps.

In “Happy Hour”, the fast five were:
1. Aric Almirola – 157.205 mph
2. Jeff Gordon – 156.958 mph
3. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 155.966 mph
4. Jimmie Johnson – 155.952 mph
5. Scott Speed – 154.772 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

When it came to ten-lap average, the best for Happy Hour were:
1. Mark Martin – 152.319 mph
2. Martin Truex, Jr. – 152.266 mph
3. Jimmie Johnson – 152.261 mph
4. Jeff Gordon – 152.170 mph
5. Greg Biffle – 152.142 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.