Practice Breakdown: Kansas (STP 400)

Two practice sessions were held this afternoon at Kansas Speedway, and those are the only ones scheduled for the weekend. Qualifying will be Saturday afternoon and the STP 400 is set to start around 1:15 PM eastern time on Sunday. I’m sure you read Ryan’s Scouting Report for the week (click here if you didn’t) so you know how important practice should be for this weekend’s race. If a driver was happy during practice, they should be at least decently happy during the race. If a team struggled in practice, it’s safe to say that they will struggle on Sunday as well–at least for the beginning of the race anyway. You can read my Fantasy NASCAR Kansas preview that went up earlier this week by clicking here.

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Important Practice Notes: Kurt Busch spun off of turn four and went through the grass in Happy Hour, but the car didn’t have any noticeable damage.

The top five drivers in the first practice session were:
1. Greg Biffle – 169.189 mph
2. Carl Edwards – 168.692 mph
3. Kasey Kahne – 168.361 mph
4. Tony Stewart – 167.989 mph
5. Jeff Gordon – 167.874 mph
Complete rankings of practice one can be found by clicking here.
In terms of ten-lap average, the following were fastest in first practice:
1. David Ragan – 163.960 mph
2. Tony Stewart – 163.950 mph
3. Kevin Harvick – 163.387 mph
4. Clint Bowyer – 162.239 mph
5. Brad Keselowski – 162.088 mph

In Happy Hour, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Joey Logano – 170.175 mph
2. Jeff Gordon – 170.122 mph
3. Brian Vickers – 170.084 mph
4. Mark Martin – 169.614 mph
5. Paul Menard – 169.502 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. Greg Biffle – 165.481 mph
2. Jeff Gordon – 165.316 mph
3. Matt Kenseth – 164.768 mph
4. Jimmie Johnson – 164.715 mph
5. Brad Keselowski – 164.564 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 Friday practice sessions combined.

1. Greg Biffle at 164.459 mph over 78 laps
2. Carl Edwards at 164.098 mph over 38 laps
3. Kurt Busch at 163.721 mph over 72 laps
4. Kasey Kahne at 163.716 mph over 72 laps
5. Denny Hamlin at 163.678 mph over 89 laps
6. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at 163.658 mph over 76 laps
7. Juan Montoya at 163.583 mph over 54 laps
8. Matt Kenseth at 163.582 mph over 72 laps
9. Jeff Gordon at 163.556 mph over 63 laps
10. Tony Stewart at 163.426 mph over 79 laps
11. Mark Martin at 163.332 mph over 98 laps
12. David Ragan at 163.309 mph over 63 laps
13. Joey Logano at 163.106 mph over 81 laps
14. Ryan Newman at 163.058 mph over 55 laps
15. Martin Truex, Jr. at 163.043 mph over 86 laps
16. David Reutimann at 163.032 mph over 83 laps
17. Regan Smith at 163.028 mph over 88 laps
18. Paul Menard at 162.997 mph over 67 laps
19. Jimmie Johnson at 162.966 mph over 86 laps
20. Kevin Harvick at 162.921 mph over 83 laps
21. Clint Bowyer at 162.873 mph over 71 laps
22. Brian Vickers at 162.729 mph over 84 laps
23. Kyle Busch at 162.597 mph over 84 laps
24. Brad Keselowski at 162.592 mph over 119 laps
25. Marcos Ambrose at 162.560 mph over 64 laps
26. Bobby Labonte at 162.426 mph over 78 laps
27. Landon Cassill at 162.362 mph over 66 laps
28. Jeff Burton at 162.358 mph over 100 laps
29. A.J. Allmendinger at 162.180 mph over 69 laps
30. Jamie McMurray at 162.108 mph over 45 laps
31. Casey Mears at 161.893 mph over 58 laps
32. Dave Blaney at 161.717 mph over 52 laps
33. David Gilliland at 161.618 mph over 42 laps
34. Patrick Carpentier at 159.511 mph over 72 laps
35. Johnny Sauter at 159.352 mph over 27 laps 

Go-or-Go-Homer’s Average Practice Speeds:

1. David Stremme at 167.438 mph over 10 laps
2. Michael McDowell at 166.060 mph over 14 laps
3. Joe Nemechek at 165.953 mph over 14 laps
4. J.J. Yeley at 165.734 mph over 14 laps
5. Scott Riggs at 165.414 mph over 13 laps
6. Tony Raines at 164.463 mph over 19 laps
7. T.J. Bell at 163.438 mph over 20 laps
8. Mike Skinner at 163.236 mph over 24 laps
9. Travis Kvapil at 162.538 mph over 44 laps
10. Andy Lally at 160.634 mph over 51 laps