|
Bliss' effort was well off Joe Ruttman's two-year-old track record of 129.204 mph, 27.863 seconds set in March 2000 but it bested third place championship runner Ted Musgrave's 125.808 mph run in the No. 1 Mopar Dodge and Crawford's 125.405 lap in the No. 14 Circle Bar Ford.
"That is a good way to start practice off," Bliss said. "There's a lot of good trucks here and a couple of other ones that don't really run with us that much so that will add a little bit to it.
"We haven't worked on qualifying -- that was race stuff.
"We probably weren't as fast as we wanted to be, when our tires have 35 laps on 'em, but then again practice was kind of short and the sun was up and down -- it was kind of hard to see."
| |
 |
| Credit: High Sierra Photo |
The 90-minute practice was stopped five times for accidents and debris. The most serious incident occurred two-thirds of the way through the session when Travis Kvapil crashed his No. 60 CAT Chevrolet in Turn 4.
Kvapil, who had the 10th fastest lap in the session, had to pull out a back-up truck and his Addington Racing team worked into the evening to prepare it for Thursday's two practice sessions and a 2 p.m. ET Bud Pole Qualifying session.
Ryan Hemphill, 20, made his return to the series in the No. 4 Bobby Hamilton Racing Dodge after missing the American Racing Wheels 200 at California Speedway after suffering a mild head injury in a crash in final practice.
Hemphill, a Pennsylvania native who has won two NASCAR Touring races this season and is beginning to be coveted by other NASCAR owners, including Chip Ganassi, was 17th, the third BHR truck in the top-20 as team owner Hamilton was present to oversee his teams.
 | CHEVY SILVERADO 150 | | | | | | | | |
|
|
"I'm just glad that NASCAR and the doctors cleared me to race this week," Hemphill said. "I feel great. The day after it happened I was glad to sit out, but after a few days I felt fine. I'm just excited about getting back out there."
Hemphill won a qualifying race at PIR in February for a Featherlite Southwest Series race.
"I really like the place," he said. "It's like no other track you will ever see. I can't really explain what it is like to drive at Phoenix -- you just have to be smooth to go fast."
Winston Cup invaders Kevin Harvick (sixth) and Ken Schrader (15th) did not appear to be pole threats, but Schrader did qualify second earlier in the day for Thursday's Featherlite Southwest Series, NASCAR Touring Late Model stock car race.
SCRA Sprint Car champion -- who has experience at Phoenix in three open wheel divisions -- turned his first 57 laps here in a truck and was 35th, well off where he'll need to be to qualify for his Truck Series debut.
Thursday, Bliss is already deeply concentrating on the championship.
"We came off a race in which we thought we should've ran better than ninth -- we lost a few points," Bliss said of California, where Musgrave won. "Myself and the team, we're going at this like it's the third or fourth race of the year.
"We want to go sit on the front row and win the race. But, if there is a situation where it's three-wide, well, we'll take second. We still need to beat the 14 (Crawford) and the 1 (Musgrave).
"If Harvick wins the race and I take second, that's fine. As long as we're in front of the 14 and 1 and building points we're all right. Going into Homestead (finale) is going to be tough but at least I'm in a situation where I can run whatever -- top-six -- and still win the championship and that's a good position to be in.
"We don't want to do that -- we want to win the race."
|
© 2001-2012 NASCAR | Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
NASCAR.COM is part of Turner Sports Digital, part of the Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network.
;)
