Practice Breakdown: California (Auto Club 400)

This weekend’s schedule is very similar this week in California to last week’s at Bristol. There was a practice session on Friday afternoon with qualifying being held later that night (at 7 PM). Results of qualifying can be found be clicking here. Two more practice sessions were held on Saturday afternoon; one began at 2:30 PM and the other at 3:50. Both of these sessions had all of the cars in race-trim. The green flag is set to drop around 3 PM on Sunday. The average practice speeds (shown at bottom of this post) are the cumulative total of the two sessions on Saturday afternoon with each driver’s Happy Hour rank.

Important Practice Notes: Kyle Busch wrecked in first practice and had to roll out a backup car. Nobody got much track time during that practice, though, because of drainage issues. In the second practice session, Kasey Kahne hit the wall but it didn’t look major to me. A.J. Allmendinger was thought to have blown an engine but it was just  a plug wire, so he will not have to go to a backup car.

First practice (held on Friday before qualifying) shook out like this:
1. David Reutimann – 186.143 mph
2. Denny Hamlin – 184.886 mph
3. Greg Biffle – 184.658 mph
4. Brad Keselowski – 184.625 mph
5. Jamie McMurray – 183.983 mph
Complete practice 1 speeds can be found by clicking here.

The top five drivers in the first practice session on Saturday were:
1. Kevin Harvick – 181.146 mph
2. Denny Hamlin – 180.841 mph
3. Carl Edwards – 180.591 mph
4. Kyle Busch – 180.307 mph
5. Jeff Gordon – 180.212 mph
Complete rankings of this practice can be found by clicking here.
The top five drivers in ten-lap average during this session were:
1. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 177.941 mph
2. Ryan Newman – 177.829 mph
3. Clint Bowyer – 177.712 mph
4. Jimmie Johnson – 177.700 mph
5. Tony Stewart – 170.639 mph

The top five fastest drivers in the Happy Hour were:
1. David Ragan – 180.973 mph
2. Tony Stewart – 180.800 mph
3. Carl Edwards – 180.691 mph
4. Mark Martin – 180.659 mph
5. Jeff Gordon – 180.320 mph
Complete rankings in Happy Hour can be found by clicking here.
The top five drivers in ten-lap average during Happy Hour were:
1. Tony Stewart – 177.794 mph
2. Clint Bowyer – 177.779 mph
3. Jimmie Johnson – 177.616 mph
4. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 177.348 mph
5. Jeff Burton – 177.305 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 (using the final two practices) and in parenthesis you will find their average speed ranking during Happy Hour.

1. Mark Martin at 177.477 mph over 57 laps (ranked 1st in Happy Hour average speed)
2. Carl Edwards at 177.329 mph over 45 laps (ranked 7th in Happy Hour average speed)
3. Clint Bowyer at 177.241 mph over 56 laps (ranked 2nd in Happy Hour average speed)
4. Kevin Harvick at 177.117 mph over 61 laps (ranked 12th in Happy Hour average speed)
5. Jeff Gordon at 177.039 mph over 42 laps (ranked 11th in Happy Hour average speed)
6. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at 177.024 mph over 60 laps (ranked 5th in Happy Hour average speed)
7. Brian Vickers at 176.843 mph over 54 laps (ranked 8th in Happy Hour average speed)
8. Jimmie Johnson at 176.788 mph over 61 laps (ranked 3rd in Happy Hour average speed)
9. Paul Menard at 176.782 mph over 55 laps (ranked 15th in Happy Hour average speed)
10. Kyle Busch at 176.773 mph over 57 laps (ranked 10th in Happy Hour average speed)
11. Tony Stewart at 176.712 mph over 61 laps (ranked 6th in Happy Hour average speed)
12. Trevor Bayne at 176.698 mph over 40 laps (ranked 4th in Happy Hour average speed)
13. Kasey Kahne at 176.652 mph over 38 laps (ranked 16th in Happy Hour average speed)
14. Martin Truex, Jr. at 176.591 mph over 57 laps (ranked 14th in Happy Hour average speed)
15. Ryan Newman at 176.558 mph over 67 laps (ranked 21st in Happy Hour average speed)
16. Jeff Burton at 176.478 mph over 74 laps (ranked 13th in Happy Hour average speed)
17. David Ragan at 176.451 mph over 59 laps (ranked 9th in Happy Hour average speed)
18. Matt Kenseth at 176.448 mph over 56 laps (ranked 18th in Happy Hour average speed)
19. Jamie McMurray at 176.448 mph over 57 laps (ranked 17th in Happy Hour average speed)
20. Joey Logano at 176.378 mph over 63 laps (ranked 22nd in Happy Hour average speed)
21. Michael McDowell at 176.336 mph over 9 laps (ranked 20th in Happy Hour average speed)
22. A.J. Allmendinger at 176.222 mph over 48 laps (ranked 24th in Happy Hour average speed)
23. Juan Montoya at 176.179 mph over 46 laps (ranked 26th in Happy Hour average speed)
24. Denny Hamlin at 179.135 mph over 74 laps (ranked 19th in Happy Hour average speed)
25. Greg Biffle at 175.980 mph over 51 laps (ranked 23rd in Happy Hour average speed)
26. Marcos Ambrose at 175.765 mph over 56 laps (ranked 30th in Happy Hour average speed)
27. Regan Smith at 175.763 mph over 52 laps (ranked 27th in Happy Hour average speed)
28. Joe Nemechek at 175.421 mph over 5 laps (ranked 29th in Happy Hour average speed)
29. David Reutimann at 175.388 mph over 50 laps (ranked 25th in Happy Hour average speed)
30. Kurt Busch at 175.374 mph over 45 laps (ranked 31st in Happy Hour average speed)
31. Casey Mears at 175.279 mph over 44 laps (ranked 32nd in Happy Hour average speed)
32. Bobby Labonte at 175.223 mph over 50 laps (ranked 33rd in Happy Hour average speed)
33. Brad Keselowski at 175.210 mph over 64 laps (ranked 28th in Happy Hour average speed)
34. J.J. Yeley at 174.910 mph over 13 laps (ranked 35th in Happy Hour average speed)
35. Landon Cassill at 174.257 mph over 48 laps (ranked 37th in Happy Hour average speed)
36. Robby Gordon at 174.057 mph over 36 laps (ranked 34th in Happy Hour average speed)
37. Dave Blaney at 173.925 mph over 28 laps (ranked 39th in Happy Hour average speed)
38. David Gilliland at 173.873 mph over 37 laps (ranked 36th in Happy Hour average speed)
39. Ken Schrader at 173.522 mph over 31 laps (ranked 41st in Happy Hour average speed)
40. Andy Lally at 173.415 mph over 48 laps (ranked 38th in Happy Hour average speed)
41. Travis Kvapil at 172.935 mph over 34 laps (ranked 40th in Happy Hour average speed)
42. Todd Bodine at 172.652 mph over 26 laps (ranked 43rd in Happy Hour average speed)
43. Tony Raines at 171.574 mph over 30 laps  (ranked 42nd in Happy Hour average speed)