Practice Breakdown: Pocono 2 – Good Sam RV Insurance 500

The only two practice sessions of this Pocono weekend were held on Friday afternoon, and the starting lineup will be set on Saturday morning. The Good Sam RV Insurance 500 is scheduled to start around 1 pm on Sunday afternoon. Click here for the results of the last Pocono race (in June) and in case you missed my Fantasy Preview that went up on Wednesday, you can read it here. Be sure to check out Ryan’s Scouting Report for “The Tricky Triangle” as well. My final predictions for Sunday’s race should be posted soon after qualifying.

Important Practice Notes: Denny Hamlin seemed to struggle mightily in first practice and I read on Twitter that his car was bottoming out. There was speculation that he was sandbagging, though, for a better qualifying draw. Brad Keselowski spun after cutting a tire down in Happy Hour but kept his Dodge off the wall.

The five fastest drivers during the first practice session were:
1. Ryan Newman – 170.026 mph
2. Kurt Busch – 168.621 mph
3. A.J. Allmendinger – 168.517 mph
4. Carl Edwards – 168.360 mph
5. Mark Martin – 168.300 mph
Complete rankings of this practice session can be found by clicking here.
In terms of ten-lap average, the fastest during this practice were:
1. Paul Menard – 162.774 mph
2. Jeff Burton – 162.667 mph
3. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps.
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. Kasey Kahne – 167.520 mph
2. Mark Martin – 166.843 mph
3. Kevin Harvick – 166.756 mph
4. Clint Bowyer – 166.669 mph
5. Juan Montoya – 166.599 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. Jimmie Johnson – 163.193 mph
2. Kevin Harvick – 163.192 mph
3. Paul Menard – 162.926 mph
4. Tony Stewart – 162.902 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 Friday practice sessions combined.

1. Martin Truex, Jr. at 164.193 mph over 42 laps
2. Ryan Newman at 163.823 mph over 32 laps
3. Kyle Busch at 163.733 mph over 51 laps
4. Kasey Kahne at 163.599 mph over 47 laps
5. Casey Mears at 163.581 mph over 14 laps
6. Brian Vickers at 163.561 mph over 45 laps
7. Kevin Harvick at 163.545 mph over 46 laps
8. Joey Logano at 163.486 mph over 47 laps
9. Jeff Burton at 163.480 mph over 42 laps
10. Denny Hamlin at 163.475 mph over 54 laps
11. Juan Montoya at 163.438 mph over 35 laps
12. Greg Biffle at 163.400 mph over 51 laps
13. Tony Stewart at 163.393 mph over 56 laps
14. Kurt Busch at 163.353 mph over 43 laps
15. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at 163.347 mph over 61 laps
16. David Reutimann at 163.272 mph over 36 laps
17. Brad Keselowski at 163.272 mph over 50 laps
18. Clint Bowyer at 163.265 mph over 47 laps
19. Carl Edwards at 163.222 mph over 44 laps
20. Dave Blaney at 163.185 mph over 23 laps
21. Mark Martin at 163.168 mph over 54 laps
22. Jimmie Johnson at 163.156 mph over 64 laps
23. Matt Kenseth at 163.069 mph over 36 laps
24. Paul Menard at 163.067 mph over 45 laps
25. A.J. Allmendinger at 162.935 mph over 47 laps
26. Jeff Gordon at 162.878 mph over 54 laps
27. Marcos Ambrose at 162.859 mph over 45 laps
28. Landon Cassill at 162.683 mph over 25 laps
29. Regan Smith at 162.633 mph over 47 laps
30. David Ragan at 162.544 mph over 44 laps
31. David Gilliland at 162.345 mph over 22 laps
32. Jamie McMurray at 162.053 mph over 47 laps
33. Bobby Labonte at 161.801 mph over 40 laps
34. Andy Lally at 160.726 mph over 29 laps
35. Mike Bliss at 157.384 mph over 38 laps

Go-or-Go-Homer’s Average Speeds:

1. J.J. Yeley at 163.544 mph over 11 laps
2. Joe Nemechek at 163.097 mph over 8 laps
3. Scott Speed at 163.046 mph over 9 laps
4. David Stremme at 162.714 mph over 14 laps
5. Robby Gordon at 162.489 mph over 19 laps
6. Todd Bodine at 162.473 mph over 15 laps
7. Erik Darnell at 162.053 mph over 11 laps
8. Mike Skinner at 161.837 mph over 13 laps
9. Travis Kvapil at 161.608 mph over 29 laps
10. T.J. Bell at 161.521 mph over 18 laps
11. Geoffrey Bodine at 160.099 mph over 18 laps