Practice Breakdown: Bristol 2 – Irwin Tools Night Race

Every session scheduled prior to the race at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend happened through Friday afternoon to Friday evening. The first practice session started at noon, lasted two hours and then Happy Hour began at 2:30 pm. Qualifying is set to start at 5pm eastern time, and be sure to see where your drivers start because starting position is very important (to me) at this race track. My post-qualifying Predictions will be up later tonight, so be sure to come back here and check it out before finalizing your rosters for the race Saturday night. Also, in case you missed my Preview from earlier this week, just click here to check it out.

Important Practice Notes: Only about half of the field worked on race runs in Happy Hour, which explains why there are some names high up on the speed chart that aren’t normally there.

The top five drivers in the first practice session were:
1. Carl Edwards – 121.528 mph
2. Mark Martin – 121.412 mph
3. Matt Kenseth – 120.885 mph
4. Brad Keseloski – 120.535 mph
5. Kasey Kahne – 120.384
Complete rankings of practice one can be found by clicking here.
The five fastest over ten consecutive laps in first practice were:
1. Brad Keselowski – 117.343 mph
2. Tony Stewart – 117.251 mph
3. Jimmie Johnson – 117.212 mph
4. Jeff Burton – 116.868 mph
5. Carl Edwards – 116.832 mph

In Happy Hour, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Carl Edwards – 120.354 mph
2. David Stremme – 120.331 mph
3. Juan Montoya – 119.977 mph
4. Clint Bowyer – 119.925 mph
5. Jeff Burton – 119.895 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. Mark Martin – 117.342 mph
2. Jimmie Johnson – 117.295 mph
3. Matt Kenseth – 117.098 mph
4. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 117.083 mph
5. David Reutimann – 117.054 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 session combined.

1. Mark Martin at 116.859 mph over 107 laps
2. Brad Keselowski at 116.844 mph over 126 laps
3. Carl Edwards at 116.749 mph over 73 laps
4. Jimmie Johnson at 116.722 mph over 125 laps
5. Kurt Busch at 116.715 mph over 67 laps
6. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at 116.682 mph over 116 laps
7. Kasey Kahne at 116.653 mph over 85 laps
8. Marcos Ambrose at 116.598 mph over 108 laps
9. Clint Bowyer at 116.527 mph over 82 laps
10. Martin Truex, Jr. at 116.512 mph over 119 laps
11. Jamie McMurray at 116.488 mph over 148 laps
12. Paul Menard at 116.442 mph over 108 laps
13. Juan Montoya at 116.408 mph over 108 laps
14. A.J. Allmendinger at 116.364 mph over 147 laps
15. Kevin Harvick at 116.326 mph over 103 laps
16. Jeff Gordon at 116.305 mph over 117 laps
17. David Gilliland at 116.281 mph over 68 laps
18. Matt Kenseth at 116.259 mph over 145 laps
19. Jeff Burton at 116.248 mph over 122 laps
20. Greg Biffle at 116.234 mph over 96 laps
21. Kyle Busch at 116.205 mph over 90 laps
22. Casey Mears at 116.132 mph over 68 laps
23. David Reutimann at 116.125 mph over 111 laps
24. Bobby Labonte at 116.032 mph over 89 laps
25. Joey Logano at 116.020 mph over 150 laps
26. Brian Vickers at 116.019 mph over 144 laps
27. Regan Smith at 116.015 mph over 140 laps
28. Ryan Newman at 115.929 mph over 138 laps
29. Tony Stewart at 115.772 mph over 102 laps
30. David Ragan at 115.731 mph over 136 laps
31. Denny Hamlin at 115.599 mph over 141 laps
32. Dave Blaney at 115.385 mph over 56 laps
33. Mike Bliss at 114.988 mph over 82 laps
34. Terry Labonte at 114.123 mph over 71 laps
35. Andy Lally at 113.945 mph over 108 laps

1. Jeff Green at 118.408 mph over 19 laps
2. Robby Gordon at 118.407 mph over 17 laps
3. Michael McDowell at 117.931 mph over 26 laps
4. Joe Nemechek at 117.720 mph over 23 laps
5. J.J. Yeley at 117.564 mph over 30 laps
6. David Stremme at 117.557 mph over 33 laps
7. Mike Skinner at 116.933 mph over 43 laps
8. Scott Speed at 116.395 mph over 27 laps
9. Travis Kvapil at 115.791 mph over 40 laps
10. David Starr at 115.493 mph over 67 laps
11. T.J. Bell at 115.230 mph over 21 laps