Practice Breakdown: Charlotte (Coca Cola 600)

Two practice sessions were held this afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and this is the first week in a long time that the cars got on the track between qualifying and the drop of the green flag. However, the race is tomorrow night and these practice sessions were held during the afternoon, so I’m not sure how important the speeds will be. However, average practice speeds (and ten-lap average) were very important–in my opinion anyway–for the All-Star Race last weekend, so I will be relying heavily on them to make my rosters this week. Brad Keselowski won the pole Thursday night for the big race, and the entire starting lineup for the Coca Cola 600 can be found by clicking here. When you see the average practice speeds below, please notice that they include the final two practice sessions only. I didn’t feel like the practice before qualifying was very important for the teams, so I disregarded it when computing the average practice speeds.

Important Practice Notes: Regan Smith had to change his transmission in the first practice of Saturday. He will have to start from the back of the field in the Coca Cola 600.

First practice (held on Friday) shook out like this:
1. Jeff Burton – 188.580 mph
2. Carl Edwards – 188.029
3. Jimmie Johnson – 188.009 mph
4. Denny Hamlin – 187.970 mph
5. Ryan Newman – 187.728 mph
Complete practice 1 speeds can be found by clicking here.

The top five drivers in the second practice session (first on Saturday) were:
1. Paul Menard– 188.745 mph
2. Kurt Busch – 188.357 mph
3. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 187.162 mph
4. Denny Hamlin – 187.097 mph
5. Kasey Kahne – 187.007 mph
Complete rankings of this practice can be found by clicking here.
In terms of ten-lap average, the following were fastest in second practice:
1. Paul Menard – 185.732 mph
2. Kurt Busch – 184.930 mph
3. Ryan Newman – 184.042 mph
4. Brad Keselowski – 183.997 mph
5. David Reutimann – 183.988 mph

In Happy Hour, the five fastest drivers were:
1. David Reutimann – 184.483 mph
2. Marcos Ambrose – 184.143 mph
3. Paul Menard – 184.093 mph
4. Kyle Busch – 183.799 mph
5. Jeff Burton – 183.767 mph
Complete rankings of this practice can be found by clicking here.
In terms of ten-lap average, the following were fastest in Happy Hour:
1. Kyle Busch – 182.480 mph
2. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 182.139 mph
3. Clint Bowyer – 181.997 mph
4. Carl Edwards – 181.973 mph
5. A.J. Allmendinger – 181.681 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 of the two Saturday practice sessions combined. In parenthesis you will find each driver’s rank in Happy Hour.

1. Carl Edwards at 183.165 mph over 34 laps (ranked 2nd in Happy Hour average speed)
2. Paul Menard at 182.850 mph over 32 laps (ranked 8th in Happy Hour average speed)
3. Kyle Busch at 182.641 mph over 39 laps (ranked 1st in Happy Hour average speed)
4. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at 182.636 mph over 57 laps (ranked 4th in Happy Hour average speed)
5. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. at 182.385 mph over 49 laps (ranked 3rd in Happy Hour average speed)
6. Greg Biffle at 182.360 mph over 44 laps (ranked 5th in Happy Hour average speed)
7. Tony Stewart at 182.231 mph over 55 laps (ranked 11th in Happy Hour average speed)
8. Kasey Kahne at 182.061 mph over 54 laps (ranked 6th in Happy Hour average speed)
9. Mark Martin at 182.002 mph over 62 laps (ranked 12th in Happy Hour average speed)
10. Matt Kenseth at 181.972 mph over 45 laps (ranked 10th in Happy Hour average speed)
11. Jimmie Johnson at 181.847 mph over 51 laps (ranked 13th in Happy Hour average speed)
12. Martin Truex, Jr. at 181.767 mph over 53 laps (ranked 14th in Happy Hour average speed)
13. Jamie McMurray at 181.763 mph over 55 laps (ranked 9th in Happy Hour average speed)
14. David Ragan at 181.717 mph over 61 laps (ranked 19th in Happy Hour average speed)
15. Denny Hamlin at 181.700 mph over 65 laps (ranked 7th in Happy Hour average speed)
16. A.J. Allmendinger at 181.579 mph over 54 laps (ranked 21st in Happy Hour average speed)
17. Kevin Harvick at 181.552 mph over 54 laps (ranked 27th in Happy Hour average speed)
18. Regan Smith at 181.488 mph over 37 laps (ranked 18th in Happy Hour average speed)
19. David Reutimann at 181.385 mph over 47 laps (ranked 20th in Happy Hour average speed)
20. Joey Logano at 181.363 mph over 63 laps (ranked 15th in Happy Hour average speed)
21. Juan Montoya at 181.361 mph over 41 laps (ranked 16th in Happy Hour average speed)
22. Kurt Busch at 181.295 mph over 77 laps (ranked 22nd in Happy Hour average speed)
23. Ryan Newman at 181.231 mph over 70 laps (ranked 25th in Happy Hour average speed)
24. Brad Keselowski at 180.986 mph over 67 laps (ranked 29th in Happy Hour average speed)
25. Brian Vickers at 180.927 mph over 67 laps (ranked 26th in Happy Hour average speed)
26. Jeff Burton at 180.902 mph over 60 laps (ranked 17th in Happy Hour average speed)
27. Jeff Gordon at 180.817 mph over 62 laps (ranked 30th in Happy Hour average speed)
28. Marcos Ambrose at 180.612 mph over 51 laps (ranked 24th in Happy Hour average speed)
29. Clint Bowyer at 180.594 mph over 60 laps (ranked 23rd in Happy Hour average speed)
30. Casey Mears at 180.187 mph over 48 laps (ranked 33rd in Happy Hour average speed)
31. Bobby Labonte at 180.125 mph over 58 laps (ranked 31st in Happy Hour average speed)
32. Dave Blaney at 179.991 mph over 41 laps (ranked 34th in Happy Hour average speed)
33. Joe Nemechek at 179.920 mph over 7 laps (ranked 35th in Happy Hour average speed)
34. David Gilliland at 179.857 mph over 42 laps (ranked 32nd in Happy Hour average speed)
35. Michael McDowell at 179.749 mph over 26 laps (ranked 28th in Happy Hour average speed)
36. Travis Kvapil at 179.731 mph over 39 laps (ranked 36th in Happy Hour average speed)
37. Mike Skinner at 179.685 mph over 7 laps (ranked N/A in Happy Hour average speed)
38. David Starr at 178.880 mph over 51 laps (ranked 39th in Happy Hour average speed)
39. Robby Gordon at 177.956 mph over 27 laps (ranked 40th in Happy Hour average speed)
40. Mike Bliss at 177.936 mph over 43 laps (ranked 37th in Happy Hour average speed)
41. J.J. Yeley at 177.764 mph over 9 laps (ranked 38th in Happy Hour average speed)
42. Landon Cassill at 177.220 mph over 30 laps (ranked 41st in Happy Hour average speed)
43. David Stremme at 177.156 mph over 25 laps (ranked 42nd in Happy Hour average speed)