Ryan Newman has already scored three Bud Poles in 2005. Credit: Autostock

Penske mates strong in Phoenix practices

Newman aims for fourth straight Bud Pole at PIR

Travis Kvapil, Ryan Newman and Jeremy Mayfield led a Dodge charge Thursday during the first of two Nextel Cup practices at Phoenix International Raceway.

Just to show why he's a three-time winner of the Bud Pole Award this season, Newman went back out in the final moments of the incident-free, 75-minute final practice and stuck a lap of 131.598 mph on the board, edging the Chevrolets of Joe Nemechek and Dave Blaney.

Travis Kvapil Credit: Autostock

Newman's lap was slightly better than Kvapil's 131.071 earlier in the day, but was accomplished under significantly cooler track conditions as Nextel Cup cars ran under Phoenix's lights for the first time.

A total of 46 cars practiced for the 43-car field, to be decided by Friday afternoon's Bud Pole Qualifying.

Of the cars required to qualify on time, Clint Bowyer and Bobby Labonte were the only ones in the top 15 in both sessions, although Labonte has the past champion's provisional at his disposal.

The new Charger is still winless in its return to NASCAR, but Newman has shown three times in qualifying that the new Dodge design is fast, at least for one lap.

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Kvapil's No. 77 team unloaded a new Charger and it was fast out of the box, especially in the heat of the day. Temperatures neared 90 degrees in the shade -- and 135 degrees on the one-mile oval.

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"We unloaded in race trim today, and I think the track temperature was a little higher than it was last week," Kvapil said. "We were slip-sliding around a little bit, and our times were off a little bit from the test."

Kvapil said the car's balance was good, especially when they simulated a qualifying run.

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"This is the time of the day we're going to qualify tomorrow," Kvapil said. "So we wanted to get one run in in the mid-afternoon. We taped it up and put tires on it and put a good lap on the board. We're happy with it."

Mayfield echoed those thoughts after his practice runs in the No. 19.

"We were running qualifying times in race trim," he said. "We put it in qualifying trim and ended up third."

The three Ganassi drivers who posted top-five finishes at Texas last weekend didn't fare as well.

Jamie McMurray was 20th, Casey Mears 35th and Sterling Marlin 38th in the afternoon session and none cracked the top 30 in the final practice.