Allen Iverson?  Anyone?  Sorry, on to the post…

You often hear during pre-race shows about who the broadcasters think will be fast during the race and who the drivers are pointing to as a favorite to win.  Many times, the driver getting the attention wasn’t necessarily at the top of the speed charts during practice.

What?!  So how do they know?

(This is the part where I expose a dirty little secret of the sport.)  Practice charts don’t mean anything!  And this is especially true at the superspeedways.

The drivers, broadcasters, and crews know who is fast during the sessions even if they aren’t on top because of a number of factors.  To be at the top of the chart, all you need is one good lap.  Being able to put down one good lap during a practice session doesn’t mean you will be fast lap after lap during a race.  It takes sustained performance to be good in one of these races.  One good lap won’t win you the big trophy.

In terms of superspeedways, one good lap in the draft will take you to the top of the charts.  That doesn’t mean you will be fast in qualifying or the race.  It means you got lucky and caught the draft just right for a single lap.  The effects of the draft are that significant.

When watching practice, its important to note who can run consistently good laps, especially on old tires.  Race tires are usually only really sticky for a few laps after they are put on, and after that, they will start to give up grip.  If you can continue being fast, even when your tires aren’t good, odds are you will have a good race.  Unless we have crazy instances like Indy this year, teams don’t normally pit every few laps for tires.  And because they don’t, your car has to be good on older tires to win.

Since single laps don’t mean a whole lot, an important stat the crews look at during practice are the 5 and 10 lap average lap times.  These charts will usually shuffle the boards a bit, and they show who can continue to run solid lap times for extended periods.

Another thing to consider, is different teams will have different agendas during practice sessions.  For example, the go-or-go-home guys will be focusing on qualifying runs and will make runs with the cars in qualifying trim.  They should be faster then those making long race runs, as their cars are taped up and set up to be fast for just one lap.

And if you are trying to figure out who is fast, who better to ask then the other drivers.  The reason reporters and broadcasters will ask the drivers who they think is fast, is because they are on track with these guys during the sessions and get a firsthand view of each car.  Drivers get a close up look at who can drive in hard, power through the center, and drive hard off the corner.  They don’t need a practice chart to tell them who is blowing their doors off on track.

The last thing I will mention on this, is to remember that practices aren’t a competition.  Teams are working through different changes to see what makes their car the best it can be in different situations.  Veteran drivers like Tony Stewart don’t necessarily need to make balls-out runs during practice to feel how a change is going to affect their car.  When their teams make a change, they head back out on track looking for a specific feel.  And they will know if it’s there or not fairly quickly.

So the next time you hear somebody talking about how so-and-so “won” practice, remember, there are no trophies or big checks for being the fastest car in practice.

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