Practice Breakdown: Michigan (Heluva Good! 400)

The exact same schedule–for the most part–that was ran last week in Pocono will be ran this weekend at Michigan International Speedway. Two practice sessions were held this afternoon and qualifying will start tomorrow afternoon at 1 pm eastern. The Heluva Good! 400 is set to start around 1:15 PM eastern time on Sunday. You can read my Fantasy NASCAR Michigan preview that went up earlier this week at OnPitRow.com by clicking here. Once again, Happy Hour was when most of the cars were on the track in race trim; the first practice session was the one that NASCAR will use to set the qualifying lineup tomorrow. When you see the average speed chart below, you will also find each individual driver’s ranking in Happy Hour, which should give you a good idea of who will be fast in the race. If qualifying is rained out tomorrow, the starting lineup will be set by first practice speeds.

Important Practice Notes: I didn’t get a chance to watch first practice, so if anyone wrecked or anything let me know and I will add it in this post. David Ragan ran into the back of Jeff Burton in Happy Hour. Ragan quickly got back onto the track, but Burton had a bunch of damage to the back of his car. Also in Happy Hour, Joey Logano switched engines, which will make him start in the rear of the field on Sunday. Logano went to on drive Hamlin’s car, and those laps counted as Denny Hamlin’s in the tracker. Therefore, Denny Hamlin’s average speed does include the laps that Joey Logano ran in the #11 Toyota.

The top five drivers in the first practice session were:
1. David Ragan – 186.601 mph
2. A.J. Allmendinger – 186.591 mph
3. Kevin Harvick – 186.519 mph
4. David Reutimann – 186.461 mph
5. Kasey Kahne – 186.249 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. Juan Montoya – 179.906 mph
2. Jamie McMurray – 178.962 mph
3. Travis Kvapil – 178.130
4. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps
5. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps

In Happy Hour, the five fastest drivers were:
1. David Stremme – 185.428 mph
2. J.J. Yeley – 185.095 mph
3. Travis Kvapil – 184.867 mph
4. Jimmie Johnson – 184.516 mph
5. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 184.417 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. Clint Bowyer – 181.746 mph
2. Mark Martin – 181.671 mph
3. Kevin Harvick – 181.595 mph
4. Jeff Gordon – 181.418 mph
5. David Ragan – 181.339 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. In parenthesis you will find each individual driver’s ranking in the second practice session, which is the one where all of the teams worked on race trim. 

1. Joey Logano at 183.108 mph over 10 laps (ranked 12th in Happy Hour average speed) **blown engine**
2. Trevor Bayne at 181.893 mph over 36 laps (ranked 2nd in Happy Hour average speed)
3. David Ragan at 181.577 mph over 49 laps (ranked 11th in Happy Hour average speed)
4. Kurt Busch at 181.287 mph over 43 laps (ranked 8th in Happy Hour average speed)
5. Kevin Harvick at 181.193 mph over 48 laps (ranked 9th in Happy Hour average speed)
6. Mark Martin at 181.146 mph over 41 laps (ranked 1st in Happy Hour average speed)
7. Carl Edwards at 181.095 mph over 42 laps (ranked 4th in Happy Hour average speed)
8. Kasey Kahne at 181.091 mph over 51 laps (ranked 3rd in Happy Hour average speed)
9. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at 181.005 mph over 64 laps (ranked 6th in Happy Hour average speed)
10. Paul Menard at 180.951 mph over 58 laps (ranked 10th in Happy Hour average speed)
11. Greg Biffle at 180.918 mph over 53 laps (ranked 17th in Happy Hour average speed)
12. Clint Bowyer at 180.724 mph over 62 laps (ranked 7th in Happy Hour average speed)
13. Brian Vickers at 180.700 mph over 60 laps (ranked 13th in Happy Hour average speed)
14. Jeff Gordon at 180.700 mph over 62 laps (ranked 16th in Happy Hour average speed)
15. Matt Kenseth at 180.686 mph over 51 laps (ranked 19th in Happy Hour average speed)
16. Brad Keselowski at 180.647 mph over 50 laps (ranked 15th in Happy Hour average speed)
17. Jimmie Johnson at 180.577 mph over 63 laps (ranked 5th in Happy Hour average speed)
18. Kyle Busch at 180.560 mph over 66 laps (ranked 24th in Happy Hour average speed)
19. A.J. Allmendinger at 180.559 mph over 51 laps (ranked 21st in Happy Hour average speed)
20. Juan Montoya at 180.554 mph over 46 laps (ranked 20th in Happy Hour average speed)
21. Denny Hamlin at 180.546 mph over 62 laps (ranked 18th in Happy Hour average speed)
22. Tony Stewart at 180.457 mph over 56 laps (ranked 14th in Happy Hour average speed)
23. Marcos Ambrose at 180.367 mph over 54 laps (ranked 23rd in Happy Hour average speed)
24. Regan Smith at 180.330 mph over 55 laps (ranked 26th in Happy Hour average speed)
25. Ryan Newman at 180.327 mph over 53 laps (ranked 22nd in Happy Hour average speed)
26. Jeff Burton at 180.291 mph over 60 laps (ranked 27th in Happy Hour average speed)
27. David Reutimann at 180.193 mph over 67 laps (ranked 25th in Happy Hour average speed)
28. Casey Mears at 180.097 mph over 22 laps (ranked 30th in Happy Hour average speed)
29. Landon Cassill at 179.635 mph over 57 laps (ranked 32nd in Happy Hour average speed)
30. Martin Truex, Jr. at 179.531 mph over 73 laps (ranked 29th in Happy Hour average speed)
31. Bobby Labonte at 179.529 mph over 53 laps (ranked 28th in Happy Hour average speed)
32. David Gilliland at 179.133 mph over 35 laps (ranked 33rd in Happy Hour average speed)
33. Jamie McMurray at 179.070 mph over 73 laps (ranked 31st in Happy Hour average speed)
34. Dave Blaney at 178.280 mph over 43 laps (ranked 34th in Happy Hour average speed)
35. Mike Bliss at 177.262 mph over 45 laps (ranked 35th in Happy Hour average speed)

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

1. Joe Nemechek at 188.902 mph over 10 laps (ranked 1st in Happy Hour average speed)
2. J.J. Yeley at 183.276 mph over 4 laps (ranked 2nd in Happy Hour average speed)
3. David Stremme at 183.232 mph over 8 laps (ranked 3rd in Happy Hour average speed)
4. Robby Gordon at 182.418 mph over 10 laps (ranked 6th in Happy Hour average speed)
5. Scott Riggs at 182.269 mph over 6 laps (ranked 5th in Happy Hour average speed)
6. Michael McDowell at 182.156 mph over 10 laps (ranked 7th in Happy Hour average speed)
7. Tony Raines at 180.004 mph over 14 laps (ranked 9th in Happy Hour average speed)
8. Mike Skinner at 179.876 mph over 19 laps (ranked 10th in Happy Hour average speed)
9. Travis Kvapil at 178.899 mph over 31 laps (ranked 4th in Happy Hour average speed)
10. Brian Keselowski at 178.547 mph over 15 laps (ranked 8th in Happy Hour average speed)
11. Andy Lally at 177.227 mph over 43 laps (ranked 11th in Happy Hour average speed)