Average Practice Speeds: Watkins Glen – Finger Lakes 355

Rain ruined Friday–for the most part–with the Sprint Cup cars only getting about one hour of practice time at Watkins Glen International. Thankfully, NASCAR added a practice on Saturday morning, so we will have a decent amount of practice data to review. The radar looks pretty clear for both Saturday as well as during the race on Sunday. Be sure to come back and check out my final Finger Lakes 355 Predictions after qualifying.

Important Practice Notes: Travis Kvapil was the first to take a spin in practice but didn’t hit anything. Later on, Kyle Busch also turned his car around and didn’t understand why his car was so bad. Some notable drivers with reported brake issues were Kevin Harvick (said the brakes were soft and had to pump them going into the turns) and Martin Truex, Jr. (just didn’t feel right). With about 20 minutes left in first practice, Patrick Long blew an engine and Denny Hamlin hit the oil and went into the wall. Jeff Burton then had nowhere to go and ran in the back of Hamlin. Both the #31 and the #11 went to backup cars. Burton got back on track and made a lap or two but Hamlin had smoke in his backup car and never completed a lap. Happy Hour wasn’t televised, so I had to rely on Twitter for the happenings. Casey Mears stalled early into the session, but that’s about it.

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. Note: The laps that Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton ran before the wreck were removed. Those marked in red must qualify on time for the race.

In the first practice session of the weekend (Friday), the fast five were:
1. Kurt Busch – 125.055 mph
2. Ryan Newman – 124.406 mph
3. Brad Keselowski – 124.126 mph
4. Tony Stewart – 124.120 mph
5. Jeff Gordon – 124.044 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

In “Happy Hour”, the following drivers were fastest:
1. Kyle Busch – 127.458 mph
2. Juan Montoya – 127.446 mph
3. Carl Edwards – 127.412 mph
4. Marcos Ambrose – 127.163 mph
5. Martin Truex, Jr. – 127.095 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

The following drivers had the best ten-lap average in “Happy Hour”:
1. Jimmie Johnson – 123.646 mph
2. Clint Bowyer – 121.441 mph