Practice Breakdown: Atlanta – Advocare 500

This weekend the race will be on Sunday night (sorry for anybody that read my Preview and kept reading Saturday night) and there were two practice sessions held: one on Friday evening and one on Saturday afternoon. The starting lineup will be set later on today (Saturday), and I will include a link for it when I put up my Predictions later tonight.

Important Practice Notes: Denny Hamlin scraped the wall during first practice but didn’t get any major damage. Brad Keselowski had a piece of debris puncture an oil pan during that session as well but I don’t think they had to change the engine (will update if they do). Kyle Busch scraped the wall (just barely) in Happy Hour and had very minimal damage to his right rear.

The top five drivers in the first practice session were:
1. Brad Keselowski – 187.722 mph
2. Denny Hamlin – 186.679 mph
3. Clint Bowyer – 185.016 mph
4. Martin Truex, Jr. – 184.911 mph
5. Mark Martin – 184.794 mph
Complete rankings of practice one can be found by clicking here.
The five fastest over ten consecutive laps in first practice were:
1. Martin Truex, Jr. – 179.291 mph
2. Jamie McMurray – 179.117 mph
3. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 178.813 mph
4. Jimmie Johnson – 178.420 mph
5. Kurt Busch – 178.382 mph

In Happy Hour, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Jeff Gordon – 182.392 mph
2. Tony Stewart – 181.979 mph
3. Clint Bowyer – 181.675 mph
4. Brad Keselowski – 180.669 mph
5. Greg Biffle – 180.557 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. Tony Stewart – 176.630 mph
2. Brad Keselowski – 175.863 mph
3. Kurt Busch – 175.259 mph
4. Kevin Harvick – 175.100 mph
5. Matt Kenseth – 175.008 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 practice session combined.

1. Kevin Harvick at 174.649 mph over 62 laps
2. Carl Edwards at 174.568 mph over 50 laps
3. Dave Blaney at 174.232 mph over 29 laps
4. A.J. Allmendinger at 174.222 mph over 84 laps
5. Clint Bowyer at 174.140 mph over 62 laps
6. David Ragan at 174.107 mph over 77 laps
7. Tony Stewart at 174.084 mph over 92 laps
8. Juan Montoya at 174.083 mph over 54 laps
9. Martin Truex, Jr. at 174.056 mph over 88 laps
10. Matt Kenseth at 174.005 mph over 89 laps
11. Denny Hamlin at 173.908 mph over 70 laps
12. David Gilliland at 173.828 mph over 29 laps
13. Kyle Busch at 173.725 mph over 82 laps
14. Jamie McMurray at 173.587 mph over 76 laps
15. Jeff Gordon at 173.474 mph over 80 laps
16. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at 173.472 mph over 88 laps
17. Bobby Labonte at 173.465 mph over 53 laps
18. Paul Menard at 173.440 mph over 82 laps
19. Jimmie Johnson at 173.426 mph over 87 laps
20. Ryan Newman at 173.261 mph over 76 laps
21. Marcos Ambrose at 173.217 mph over 79 laps
22. Greg Biffle at 173.127 mph over 85 laps
23. Mark Martin at 173.106 mph over 84 laps
24. Jeff Burton at 173.073 mph over 70 laps
25. Kasey Kahne at 172.942 mph over 77 laps
26. David Reutimann at 172.866 mph over 72 laps
27. Joey Logano at 172.584 mph over 104 laps
28. Brad Keselowski at 172.514 mph over 86 laps
29. Mike Bliss at 172.498 mph over 40 laps
30. Kurt Busch at 172.488 mph over 116 laps
31. Brian Vickers at 172.383 mph over 90 laps
32. Regan Smith at 172.345 mph over 82 laps
33. Casey Mears at 171.639 mph over 37 laps
34. Andy Lally at 170.611 mph over 62 laps
35. Landon Cassill at 169.905 mph over 73 laps