Average Practice Speeds: Pocono 400 Presented by #NASCAR

As you probably know by now, Pocono Raceway was repaved and now has much more grip–and thus speed–than the last time we were here in 2011. Because of this, test sessions were open for teams to test out the “new” track on Wednesday and Thursday. Those speeds can be found here: Wednesday Session — Thursday Session #1 — Thursday Session #2. Just on a side note: many drivers were sand-bagging in first practice to get an early qualifying draw, when the track will be cooler. The schedule this weekend in Pocono is basically the same one we saw in Dover: two practices on Friday followed by qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday.

Important Practice Notes: Juan Montoya thought he broke something in the car during first practice. It wasn’t really reported on and I didn’t see anything on Twitter so I can’t confirm that. Stephen Leicht hit a groundhog during Happy Hour, and while trying to miss that, Martin Truex, Jr. scraped the wall a bit. Nothing major.

In the first practice session, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Mark Martin – 179.379 mph
2. Jamie McMurray – 178.937 mph
3. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 178.809 mph
4. Jimmie Johnson – 178.678 mph
5. A.J. Allmendinger – 178.204 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

In terms of ten-lap average, the top five for first practice were:
1. Joey Logano – 174.172 mph
2. No other drivers ran ten consecutive laps.
3. No other drivers ran ten consecutive laps.
4. No other drivers ran ten consecutive laps.
5. No other drivers ran ten consecutive laps.

In “Happy Hour”, the fast five were:
1. Joey Logano – 179.501 mph
2. Carl Edwards – 179.361 mph
3. Jeff Gordon – 179.108 mph
4. Paul Menard – 178.798 mph
5. Kyle Busch – 178.540 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

When it came to ten-lap average, the best for Happy Hour were:
1. Jimmie Johnson – 175.243 mph
2. Kasey Kahne – 175.176 mph
3. Tony Stewart – 175.016 mph
4. Mark Martin – 174.959 mph
5. Denny Hamlin – 174.893 mph
Click here for the complete ten-lap average chart for Happy Hour.

 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. I have found over the years that this is much more accurate as to whether or not someone has a car that is good for one lap or one that can consistently be fast. These numbers, however, can be skewed if a team puts new tires on frequently or rarely changes the tires.