Average Practice Speeds: Kentucky – Quaker State 400

The track was very hot and very slick during practice on Friday, and it’s going to be hot when the starting lineup is set later on as well. I think those that head out late then will have an advantage because they will have more grip, and as I said earlier this week in my Preview, starting up front it pretty important here unless you have a really, really fast car and can pass quickly on the restarts.

Important Practice Notes: Right at the beginning of first practice, Brad Keselowski and Juan Montoya got together. The #2 team immediately pulled out the backup car while Montoya’s team just fixed his #42 Chevy (I think so, anyway. SPEED didn’t do a real good job covering it). Soon after, Marcos Ambrose spun coming off of turn four and went through the grass. Damage was minimal and he was able to complete more laps soon after. In Happy Hour, Keselowski and Montoya had a little run-in again, but nothing major to report. BK just bumped him a bit getting into the corner to show his displeasure from first practice. Mike Skinner spun during Happy Hour later on.

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. I tried my best to take out the skewed laps that happened when on-track incidents happened on Friday.

In the first practice session, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Kyle Busch – 177.801 mph
2. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 176.817 mph
3. Jimmie Johnson – 176.540 mph
4. Clint Bowyer – 176.488 mph
5. Martin Truex, Jr. – 176.327 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

In “Happy Hour”, the fast five were:
1. Jeff Gordon – 175.097 mph
2. Brad Keselowski – 174.633 mph
3. Greg Biffle – 173.958 mph
4. A.J. Allmendinger – 173.572 mph
5. Carl Edwards – 173.494 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

When it came to ten-lap average, the best for Happy Hour were:
1. Denny Hamlin – 171.141 mph
2. Jimmie Johnson – 171.085 mph
3. Jeff Gordon – 170.840 mph
4. Brad Keselowski – 170.813 mph
5. Kyle Busch – 170.486 mph
Click here for the complete ten-lap average chart for Happy Hour.