Less than four days after concluding the Samsung 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway the NASCAR Sprint Cup teams and drivers were back on track for the second part of their latest west coast swing in Thursday's opening practice session at the Phoenix International Raceway.
Penske Racing's Ryan Newman was the quickest driver off the bat as he led the session with a best time of 26.975-seconds (133.457mph) in his #12 Dodge and while the introduction of the Car of Tomorrow/Today' was designed to theoretically allow teams to use the same chassis from one weekend to the next, the reality of the situation is that the majority of the teams still had to work virtually non stop between the journey from Fort Worth to Phoenix in order to get their cars ready.
Last year the one-mile dog-leg oval was something of a Hendrick Chevrolet playground and with last year's Checker Auto Parts 500 winner Jimmie Johnson second fastest in his #48 Chevrolet there are already signs that Saturday night's Subway Fresh Fit 500 could see Rick Hendrick's team finally break their winless start to 2008.
Mark Martin set third fastest time in the #8 DEI Chevrolet with Kyle Busch fourth in the leading Joe Gibbs Toyota and Casey Mears fifth in the second best placed Hendrick entry. Busch's teammate Denny Hamlin was next up with triple 2008 winner Carl Edwards seventh and the only Ford driver to break the top 15.
Jeff Gordon, who broke his own Phoenix winless record in last year's Subway 500, was eighth fastest following the worst weekend of his career last time out in Texas and the driver of the famous #24 Chevrolet knows that a fighting display on Saturday night will be the perfect tonic for his currently stuttering fifth title bid.
Martin Truex Jr and Tony Stewart rounded out the top ten with Kurt Busch and Elliott Sadler next in line and Scotland's Dario Franchitti 13th, fastest of the ten drivers not guaranteed a place on the starting grid.
![Ryan Newman at Indianapolis. [Pic Credit IMS Media/Dana Garrett]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/252484.jpg)
