Practice Breakdown: Dover 2 – AAA 400 (Chase Race #3)

There were two practice sessions on Friday afternoon, but only Happy Hour was televised (reason #3,291 on my list for hating ESPN). The last race at Dover International Speedway was in May earlier this year, and in case you want to compare the average speeds of the drivers that weekend in practice to how they finished, you can do so by looking at the Practice Breakdown here and the race results here. My Fantasy Preview was posted earlier this week on OnPitRow.com and you can view my top 15 drivers entering the weekend by clicking here. If you read Ryan’s Scouting Report, you’ll probably remember that practice is very important when it comes to Dover, and I personally put a lot of emphasis on average speed.

Important Practice Notes: Nothing major to report during either practice session today…

The top five drivers in the first practice session were:
1. Paul Menard – 156.027 mph
2. Matt Kenseth – 155.986 mph
3. Carl Edwards – 155.891 mph
4. Jeff Gordon – 155.878 mph
5. Kyle Busch – 155.777 mph
Complete rankings of practice one can be found by clicking here.
The five fastest over ten consecutive laps in first practice were:
1. Carl Edwards – 151.431 mph
2. Jimmie Johnson – 150.819 mph
3. Kyle Busch – 150.386 mph
4. Jeff Gordon – 150.348 mph
5. No other driver ran ten consecutive laps.

In Happy Hour, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Mark Martin – 155.072 mph
2. Jeff Gordon – 154.017 mph
3. David Stremme – 153.840 mph
4. Juan Montoya – 153.840 mph
5. Travis Kvapil – 153.348 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. Paul Menard – 151.923 mph
2. Carl Edwards – 151.727 mph
3. Regan Smith – 151.489 mph
4. David Ragan – 151.265 mph
5. Kyle Busch – 151.161 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. David Ragan at 153.843 mph over 114 laps
2. Kasey Kahne at 151.510 mph over 85 laps
3. Kevin Harvick at 151.486 mph over 91 laps
4. Carl Edwards at 151.432 mph over 96 laps
5. Clint Bowyer at 151.025 mph over 61 laps
6. Marcos Ambrose at 150.948 mph over 82 laps
7. David Reutimann at 150.923 mph over 103 laps
8. A.J. Allmendinger at 150.920 mph over 124 laps
9. Regan Smith at 150.873 mph over 83 laps
10. Mark Martin at 150.778 mph over 80 laps
11. Paul Menard at 150.726 mph over 98 laps
12. Juan Montoya at 150.712 mph over 81 laps
13. Matt Kenseth at 150.591 mph over 86 laps
14. Jeff Gordon at 150.586 mph over 106 laps
15. Jamie McMurray at 150.561 mph over 51 laps
16. David Gilliland at 150.534 mph over 38 laps
17. Kyle Busch at 150.497 mph over 117 laps
18. Jeff Burton at 150.497 mph over 94 laps
19. Kurt Busch at 150.495 mph over 110 laps
20. Brad Keselowski at 150.482 mph over 115 laps
21. Joey Logano at 150.410 mph over 107 laps
22. Greg Biffle at 150.390 mph over 97 laps
23. Jimmie Johnson at 150.385 mph over 111 laps
24. Bobby Labonte at 150.295 mph over 85 laps
25. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at 150.264 mph over 89 laps
26. Martin Truex, Jr. at 150.255 mph over 74 laps
27. Tony Stewart at 149.947 mph over 91 laps
28. Brian Vickers at 149.887 mph over 114 laps
29. Denny Hamlin at 149.818 mph over 90 laps
30. Ryan Newman at 149.769 mph over 113 laps
31. Casey Mears at 149.271 over 60 laps
32. Landon Cassill at 149.213 mph over 103 laps
33. Dave Blaney at 149.104 mph over 63 laps
34. Mike Bliss at 148.321 mph over 84 laps
35. Andy Lally at 147.894 mph over 60 laps

Go-or-Go-Homer’s Average Speeds:

1. David Stremme at 153.120 mph over 11 laps
2. Travis Kvapil at 152.350 mph over 16 laps
3. Michael McDowell at 152.294 mph over 13 laps
4. Reed Sorenson at 151.852 mph over 15 laps
5. J.J. Yeley at 151.762 mph over 12 laps
6. Josh Wise at 151.368 mph over 24 laps
7. Scott Speed at 151.243 mph over 22 laps
8. Mike Skinner at 149.852 mph over 26 laps
9. Joe Nemechek at 149.499 mph over 23 laps