Practice Breakdown: Daytona 500

Two practice sessions went on at Daytona on Friday afternoon, with many teams deciding not to participate in one (or both) of them. Happy Hour was on Saturday afternoon. As I said in my preview article, I wouldn’t put much emphasis on practice speeds like you would at other tracks. So, this practice breakdown is for the people who are interested in seeing how it all shook out. Last year at Talladega (I don’t have data from the Daytona races last year), average practice speeds weren’t too important when it came to raceday. The drivers were ranked in terms of average speed at this link with their result of the race underneath them.

The first practice session (1 hour long) on Friday shook out like this:
1. Jeff Burton – 196.648 mph
2. Paul Menard – 196.644 mph
3. Marcos Ambrose – 195.839 mph
4. David Ragan – 195.839 mph
5. Denny Hamlin – 194.999 mph
Complete practice 1 speeds can be found by clicking here. Only twelve cars took to the track in this practice.

Another practice was held on Friday afternoon. The top five for practice 2 was:
1. Mark Martin – 196.803 mph
2. Jimmie Johnson – 196.794 mph
3. Kasey Kahne – 194.704 mph
4. Brian Vickers – 194.700 mph
5. Matt Kenseth – 193.857 mph
Complete practice 2 speeds can be found by clicking here. Only twelve cars took to the track in this practice.

The top five drivers in Happy Hour (held Saturday morning) were:
1. Clint Bowyer – 200.316 mph
2. Jeff Burton – 200.316 mph
3. Brad Keselowski – 199.751 mph
4. Robby Gordon – 199.743 mph
5. Kurt Busch – 199.459 mph
Complete Happy Hour speeds can be found by clicking here.

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. In parenthesis after each driver will be their rank of average speed in Happy Hour.

1. Regan Smith @ 195.194 mph over 11 laps (1st in Happy Hour avg. speed)
2. Paul Menard @ 193.430 mph over 32 laps (14th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
3. Jeff Burton @ 193.390 mph over 37 laps (8th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
4. Jamie McMurray @ 193.236 mph over 9 laps (2nd in Happy Hour avg. speed)
5. Juan Montoya @ 193.180 mph over 9 laps (4th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
6. Clint Bowyer @ 192.327 mph over 11 laps (9th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
7. Denny Hamlin @ 192.289 mph over 65 laps (11th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
8. Martin Truex, Jr. @ 192.030 mph over 15 laps (10th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
9. Mark Martin @ 191.872 mph over 35 laps (6th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
10. Travis Kvapil @ 191.823 mph over 20 laps (12th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
11. Jimmie Johnson @ 191.766 mph over 22 laps (did not practice during Happy Hour)
12. Kevin Harvick @ 191.744 mph over 6 laps (13th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
13. Kyle Busch @ 191.497 mph over 37 laps (15th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
14. Joey Logano @ 191.286 mph over 28 laps (17th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
15. David Gilliland @ 191.187 mph over 20 laps (18th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
16. Matt Kenseth @ 191.136 mph over 22 laps (20th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
17. Michael Waltrip @ 191.132 mph over 16 laps (19th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
18. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. @ 191.016 mph over 33 laps (16th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
19. Robby Gordon @ 190.952 mph over 22 laps (21st in Happy Hour avg. speed)
20. A.J. Allmendinger @ 190.917 mph over 42 laps (5th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
21. Marcos Ambrose @ 190.899 mph over 39 laps (24th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
22. Brad Keselowski @ 190.868 mph over 35 laps (22nd in Happy Hour avg. speed)
23. Greg Biffle @ 190.731 mph over 14 laps (28th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
24. Jeff Gordon @ 190.567 mph over 36 laps (did not practice during Happy Hour)
25. Kasey Kahne @ 190.453 mph over 42 laps (7th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
26. Bill Elliott @ 190.348 mph over 10 laps (did not practice during Happy Hour)
27. Kurt Busch @ 190.343 mph over 43 laps (3rd in Happy Hour avg. speed)
28. Dave Blaney @ 190.303 mph over 18 laps (25th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
29. Trevor Bayne @ 190.250 mph over 14 laps (26th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
30. David Reutimann @ 190.164 mph over 28 laps (27th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
31. Brian Vickers @ 189.990 mph over 43 laps (did not practice during Happy Hour)
32. Tony Stewart @ 189.936 mph over 41 laps (did not practice during Happy Hour)
33. Bobby Labonte @ 189.919 mph over 23 laps (29th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
34. Terry Labonte @ 189.587 mph over 10 laps (30th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
35. Ryan Newman @ 189.255 mph over 33 laps (37th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
36. David Ragan @ 188.767 mph over 47 laps (23rd in Happy Hour avg. speed)
37. Joe Nemechek @ 187.752 mph over 12 laps (32nd in Happy Hour avg. speed)
38. Andy Lally @ 187.490 mph over 33 laps (33rd in Happy Hour avg. speed)
39. Steven Wallace @ 186.783 mph over 15 laps (31st in Happy Hour avg. speed)
40. J.J. Yeley @ 184.088 mph over 11 laps (35th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
41. Robert Richardson, Jr. @ 182.769 mph over 21 laps (36th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
42. Carl Edwards @ 181.210 mph over 45 laps (34th in Happy Hour avg. speed)
43. Brian Keselowski – Did Not Practice