Average Practice Speeds: Bristol 2 – IRWIN Tools Night Race
The schedule for this weekend at Bristol was compacted to say the least. Every on-track, pre-race activity was scheduled for Friday, with two practice sessions occurring in the mid-afternoon and qualifying set to start later tonight at 5:00 pm eastern time. The leaders will start lapping cars quick on Saturday night so qualifying is pretty important. Be sure to come back here to ifantasyrace.com after the starting lineup is set to see my final top 15 predictions for the 2012 IRWIN Tools Night Race.
Important Practice Notes: Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch made contact near the end of first practice, but I think the damage on both was simply cosmetic.
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.
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In the furst practice session, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Casey Mears – 122.209 mph
2. Brad Keselowski – 122.162 mph
3. Greg Biffle – 122.123 mph
4. Aric Almirola – 121.999 mph
5. Joey Logano – 121.999 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.
In terms of ten-lap average, the top five for the first practice were:
1. David Gilliland – 119.088 mph
2. Matt Kenseth – 119.076 mph
3. Denny Hamlin – 118.707 mph
4. Paul Menard – 118.692 mph
5. Clint Bowyer – 118.608 mph
Click here for the complete ten-lap average chart for the first practice.
In “Happy Hour”, the fast five were:
1. Joey Logano – 122.404 mph
2. Brad Keselowski – 122.154 mph
3. David Gilliland – 121.929 mph
4. Matt Kenseth – 121.921 mph
5. Kyle Busch – 121.883 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.
When it came to ten-lap average, the best for Happy Hour were:
1. Greg Biffle – 118.870 mph
2. Brad Keselowski – 118.656 mph
3. Kasey Kahne – 118.617 mph
4. Denny Hamlin – 118.545 mph
5. Kurt Busch – 118.402 mph
Click here for the complete ten-lap average chart for Happy Hour.
August 24, 2012 @ 3:42 pm
Looks like most teams were just working on race setups in both practices – just one look at Gilliland, Mears, and Almirola at the top of the charts will tell you that.
August 24, 2012 @ 3:51 pm
In my opinion I thought the breakdown was like this… I thought the first 1:30 of the first practice was race setup and everything after that including happy hour was mostly qualifying runs.
August 25, 2012 @ 7:01 am
It would be great if someone could figure out a way to put out two groups of practice speed numbers……one in race trim and one in qually trim…..
August 25, 2012 @ 7:37 am
Hi Tom, I see what you’re saying. For Bristol though with the amount of laps practiced I don’t think a few qualifying laps would skew anything.
August 25, 2012 @ 9:19 am
That’s why I love weekends where they practice, qualify, and then practice again before the race 😉
August 25, 2012 @ 8:02 am
Hi Ryan,will you come out yet today with your top elite picks,now that practice and qualifying is over. Thanks,love your site
August 25, 2012 @ 9:07 am
Hi Harleyguy,
It’s up now –> https://noconspiracyhere6.wpcomstaging.com/2012/08/25/bristol-irwin-tools-night-race-top-tier-elite-deadline-fantasy-analysis/
I just delayed it so I could watch the Nationwide Series race and catch onto how the race would play out.
August 25, 2012 @ 10:03 am
Hi Ryan,one more question if you have time, who do yopu like better, the 13, 38. Thanks
August 25, 2012 @ 10:13 am
Between the two I think I would take the 38. He’s finished in the twenties the last five races here. Mears is starting on the pole but he’s fresh off a start and park attempt. I don’t think he’ll do it this race but it should be noted. If your talking about Yahoo! I would do Mears and hope he gets some bonus points.