Practice Breakdown: Infineon (Toyota/Save Mart 350)

Some unfamiliar faces will be found on the speed charts this weekend as the Sprint Cup series makes a stop in Sonoma, California at Infineon Raceway. Joey Logano won the pole for Sunday’s event, and while that really surprised me, most of the top ten was even more shocking. You can find the complete qualifying results by clicking here. For the race this week, NASCAR decided to go back to the practice schedule I like–with two sessions after qualifying–and that will make today’s speeds even more important for when you lock down your final fantasy rosters. In case you missed my fantasy preview earlier this week, head on over to OnPitRow.com and check it out. As usual, my final top 15 ranking will be posted on here later today. In the average speed chart below, I omitted the first practice speeds because teams worked on qualifying runs during that session.

Important Practice Notes: Kyle Busch spun during Saturday’s first practice session but didn’t hit anything and continued. In Happy Hour, David Ragan ran out of fuel and had to be towed back to pit road. No damage was reported.

The top five drivers in the first practice session (held on Friday to determine qualifying order) were:
1. Kurt Busch – 93.014 mph
2. Denny Hamlin – 92.559 mph
3. Kasey Kahne – 92.546 mph
4. Kevin Harvick – 92.361 mph
5. Martin Truex, Jr. – 92.359 mph
Complete rankings of practice one can be found by clicking here.

The top five drivers in the first practice session on Saturday were:
1. Jamie McMurray – 92.295 mph
2. Kurt Busch – 92.073 mph
3. Clint Bowyer – 91.785 mph
4. Kyle Busch – 91.781 mph
5. A.J. Allmendinger – 91.695 mph
Complete rankings of practice one can be found by clicking here.
In terms of ten-lap average, the following were fastest in this practice:
1. Brad Keselowski – 90.372 mph
2. Paul Menard – 90.236 mph
3. Robby Gordon – 90.087 mph
4. Carl Edwards – 89.483 mph
5. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps

In Happy Hour, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Brad Keselowski – 91.725 mph
2. Jamie McMurray – 91.623 mph
3. Kurt Busch – 91.591 mph
4. Juan Montoya – 91.560 mph
5. Clint Bowyer – 91.361 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. Brad Keselowski – 90.219 mph
2. Jamie McMurray – 90.214 mph
3. Denny Hamlin – 90.166 mph
4. Tony Stewart – 89.748 mph
5. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps

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. I didn’t factor in Friday’s practice speeds because teams were doing qualifying runs in that session.

1. Kurt Busch at 90.678 mph over 40 laps
2. Martin Truex, Jr. at 90.548 mph over 41 laps
3. Clint Boywer at 90.427 mph over 35 laps
4. Jamie McMurray at 90.419 mph over 45 laps
5. Kyle Busch at 90.340 mph over 32 laps
6. Marcos Ambrose at 90.296 mph over 22 laps
7. Jimmie Johnson at 90.284 mph over 45 laps
8. A.J. Allmendinger at 90.227 mph over 41 laps
9. Ryan Newman at 90.208 mph over 36 laps
10. David Gilliland at 90.187 mph over 19 laps
11. Kevin Harvick at 90.156 mph over 36 laps
12. Robby Gordon at 90.121 mph over 26 laps
13. Brad Keselowski at 90.099 mph over 52 laps
14. Paul Menard at 90.077 mph over 34 laps
15. Juan Montoya at 90.034 mph over 31 laps
16. Matt Kenseth at 90.015 mph over 34 laps
17. Kasey Kahne at 89.976 mph over 39 laps
18. Jeff Gordon at 89.959 mph over 38 laps
19. Regan Smith at 89.955 mph over 40 laps
20. Brian Vickers at 89.945 mph over 30 laps
21. Boris Said at 89.832 mph over 29 laps
22. Jeff Burton at 89.782 mph over 48 laps
23. Tony Stewart at 89.775 mph over 43 laps
24. Denny Hamlin at 89.765 mph over 37 laps
25. Greg Biffle at 89.753 mph over 27 laps
26. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at 89.700 mph over 32 laps
27. Bobby Labonte at 89.643 mph over 26 laps
28. Joey Logano at 89.590 mph over 33 laps
29. Mark Martin at 89.501 mph over 30 laps
30. David Reutimann at 89.478 mph over 32 laps
31. Andy Lally at 89.412 mph over 26 laps
32. Carl Edwards at 89.402 mph over 37 laps
33. Dave Blaney at 89.190 mph over 30 laps
34. Casey Mears at 89.038 mph over 4 laps
35. David Ragan at 88.963 mph over 42 laps
36. Joe Nemechek at 88.775 mph over 4 laps
37. P.J. Jones at 88.578 mph over 14 laps
38. Andy Pilgrim at 88.541 mph over 27 laps
39. Terry Labonte at 88.464 mph over 31 laps
40. David Mayhey at 88.437 mph over 14 laps
41. Brian Simo at 88.433 mph over 22 laps
42. Mike Skinner at 87.984 mph over 5 laps
43. Chris Cook at 87.954 mph over 11 laps