Average Practice Speeds: Richmond 2 – Federated Auto Parts 400

NASCAR gave us a very tight schedule to work with this weekend. There were two practice sessions on Friday afternoon that were separated by a mere 30 minutes, and qualifying is set to be held around 5:30 on ESPN2. The Federated Auto Parts 400 is set to start around 7:30 pm on Saturday evening, but I’m hearing on Twitter that rain may be a factor. The cars were on the track in the heat of the day and the race is at night, so keep that in mind when analyzing the numbers below. Personally, I put more stock into the Happy Hour speeds than the first practice, but that may just be me.

Important Practice Notes: In case you haven’t noticed yet, Ryan does an amazing job detailing the important happenings for each practice. Click here for the 1st practice notes, and click here for the Happy Hour notes.

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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.

In the furst practice session, the five fastest drivers were:
1. Jeff Burton – 125.412 mph
2. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 125.313 mph
3. Clint Bowyer – 125.232 mph
4. Sam Hornish, Jr. – 125.110 mph
5. Kevin Harvick – 125.041 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. Brad Keselowski – 120.736 mph
2. Marcos Ambrose – 120.397 mph
3. Clint Bowyer – 119.494 mph
4. Jimmie Johnson – 119.281 mph
5. Denny Hamlin – 118.916 mph
Click here for the complete ten-lap average chart for the first practice.

In “Happy Hour”, the fast five were:
1. Carl Edwards – 122.321 mph
2. Jimmie Johnson – 122.260 mph
3. Jeff Burton – 121.869 mph
4. Jeff Gordon – 121.797 mph
5. Martin Truex, Jr. – 121.583 mph
Click here for the complete results from this practice.

When it came to ten-lap average, the best for Happy Hour were:
1. Carl Edwards – 119.734 mph
2. Kevin Harvick – 119.562 mph
3. Bobby Labonte – 119.338 mph
4. Matt Kenseth – 119.325 mph
5. Greg Biffle – 119.311 mph
Click here for the complete ten-lap average chart for Happy Hour.