Average Practice Speeds: Michigan – Quicken Loans 400

Another week, another repaved track. The schedule this weekend was very similar to the one that we saw a week ago in Pocono. There were first two test sessions on Thursday, and those speeds can be found here: AM Session — PM Session. And then on Friday, the official practices were held at the “new” Michigan International Speedway. All of those speeds can be found in this article, and those are what the average speeds were calculated with. Qualifying will be on Saturday at 1 pm eastern time.

Important Practice Notes: In case you didn’t hear, the cars were hitting 200 mph during first practice. Adam Alexander only mentioned it about 300 times. Other than that, nothing to note–very uneventful. A lot of teams (if not all) spent time in both practice sessions to scuff up all of their tires. Jamie McMurray brushed the wall in Happy Hour.

What’s so good about average speeds? When the race is at a larger track, very few teams run ten-lap averages, so you really have no idea how good the car is except for one lap. That’s where average speeds come in. You will find below how they are calculated, and with the ifantasyrace advantage you will get FULL ACCESS to average practice speeds every week as well as many other exclusive things. Click here for more information. Use discount code Trial this week.

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. Please note: Jimmie Johnson somehow didn’t show up in my spreadsheet from first practice, so his average speeds below are only from Happy Hour. Sorry about that.

In the first practice session, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Mark Martin – 201.376 mph
2. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 201.061 mph
3. Trevor Bayne – 200.770 mph
4. Tony Stewart – 200.736 mph
5. Matt Kenseth – 200.574 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

In terms of ten-lap average, the top five for first practice were:
1. Jimmie Johnson – 195.842 mph
2. Joey Logano – 195.607 mph
3. Kevin Harvick – 193.726 mph
4. No other drivers ran ten consecutive laps.
5. No other drivers ran ten consecutive laps.

In “Happy Hour”, the fast five were:
1. Greg Biffle – 204.708 mph
2. Marcos Ambrose – 203.551 mph
3. Kevin Harvick – 202.954 mph
4. Carl Edwards – 202.943 mph
5. Paul Menard – 201.737 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

When it came to ten-lap average, the best for Happy Hour were:
1. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 197.451 mph
2. Matt Kenseth – 196.969 mph
3. Kasey Kahne – 196.695 mph
4. Jeff Gordon – 196.534 mph
5. Mark Martin – 196.476 mph
Click here for the complete ten-lap average chart for Happy Hour.