Average Practice Speeds: Dover 2

Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin bumped heads during Saturday's first practice, causing damage to both cars and skewing their average practice speeds. My sleeper pick, David Reutimann, has looked incredibly fast all weekend. I wouldn't go a lot off of average speeds this week but they are something to look at.  Kasey Kahne had a very low first practice speed, which brought down his total average practice speeds. He looked good in Happy Hour so I'm not sure what the problem was in first practice.

Click on the links (underlined portions) to go to practice speed charts.

Top 5 for Practice Two:
1. David Reutimann
2. Kyle Busch
3. Kurt Busch
4. Juan Montoya
5. Jimmie Johnson

Top 5 for Happy Hour:
1. Joey Logano
2. Clint Bowyer
3. Jeff Burton
4. Matt Kenseth
5. Martin Truex, Jr.

10-Lap Average speeds are much more important than one fast lap. The top ten fastest at 10-lap averages in happy hour were:

1. Matt Kenseth
2. Joey Logano
3. Paul Menard
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Jeff Burton
6. David Reutimann
7. Carl Edwards
8. Kyle Busch
9. Jimmie Johnson
10. Brad Keselowski


Average 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 two totals together, and then divide by the total number of laps ran, you get a pretty good indicator on who has a fast car. The order that they are in is the overall average speeds rank. In parenthesis after each driver will be their rank of average speed in Happy Hour, which may be more helpful since so many speeds were inaccurate in first practice.

1. David Reutimann @ 148.684 mph over 63 laps (7th in happy hour average speed)
2. Martin Truex, Jr. @ 148.676 mph over 48 laps (3rd in happy hour average speed)
3. Kurt Busch @ 148.447 mph over 76 laps (4th in happy hour average speed)
4. Matt Kenseth @ 148.215 mph over 93 laps (8th in happy hour average speed)
5. Paul Menard @ 148.159 mph over 84 laps (11th in happy hour average speed)
6. Scott Speed @ 148.062 mph over 55 laps (32nd in happy hour average speed)
7. Greg Biffle @ 148.044 mph over 98 laps (9th in happy hour average speed)
8. Kevin Harvick @ 147.973 mph over 64 laps (1st in happy hour average speed)
9. Denny Hamlin @ 147.970 mph over 71 laps (18th in happy hour average speed)
10. Joey Logano @ 147.967 mph over 94 laps (14th in happy hour average speed)
11. Carl Edwards @ 147.934 mph over 66 laps (2nd in happy hour average speed)
12. David Ragan @ 147.877 mph over 83 laps (27th in happy hour average speed)
13. Clint Bowyer @ 147.869 mph over 94 laps (24th in happy hour average speed)
14. Jamie McMurray @ 147.854 mph over 89 laps (12th in happy hour average speed)
15. A.J. Allmendinger @ 147.850 mph over 92 laps (23rd in happy hour average speed)
16. Elliott Sadler @ 147.832 mph over 54 laps (10th in happy hour average speed)
17. Mark Martin @ 147.816 mph over 98 laps (28th in happy hour average speed)
18. Brad Keselowski @ 147.812 mph over 77 laps (22nd in happy hour average speed)
19. Ryan Newman @ 147.781 mph over 83 laps (26th in happy hour average speed)
20. Jeff Gordon @ 147.699 mph over 72 laps (5th in happy hour average speed)
21. Jimmie Johnson @ 147.692 mph over 96 laps (19th in happy hour average speed)
22. Kyle Busch @ 147.690 mph over 102 laps (17th in happy hour average speed)
23. Juan Montoya @ 147.665 mph over 68 laps (31st in happy hour average speed)
24. Reed Sorenson @ 147.526 mph over 60 laps (20th in happy hour average speed)
25. Marcos Ambrose @ 147.380 mph over 67 laps (16th in happy hour average speed)
26. Jeff Burton @ 147.256 mph over 118 laps (13th in happy hour average speed)
27. Regan Smith @ 147.216 mph over 64 laps (30th in happy hour average speed)
28. Casey Mears @ 146.955 mph over 52 laps (29th in happy hour average speed)
29. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. @ 146.810 mph over 66 laps (15th in happy hour average speed)
30. Sam Hornish, Jr. @ 146.805 mph over 76 laps (25th in happy hour average speed)
31. Kasey Kahne @ 146.648 mph over 64 laps (6th in happy hour average speed)
32. Tony Stewart @ 146.456 mph over 65 laps (21st in happy hour average speed)