AVONDALE, Ariz. -- For three open-wheel refugees, Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway will be a race of firsts.

After six previous failures, Sam Hornish Jr. finally qualified for his Nextel Cup debut. Patrick Carpentier, who made his debut at Watkins Glen earlier this season, will make his first oval track start. And Jacques Villeneuve -- who finished on the lead lap in his Talladega debut last month -- will make his first short-track start.

Hornish Jr. went out early and posted a lap of 131.062 mph, and was guaranteed a starting spot of 26th when Brian Vickers and Carpentier were the only other "go-or-go-homers" to run a quicker time.

"I think I picked up the throttle a little too soon coming off of [Turn] 2 and probably lost a little bit there," Hornish Jr. said. "It's a learning process and we keep trying to learn as much as we can."

Hornish had failed to qualify at New Hampshire, Dover, Talladega, Charlotte, Martinsville and Atlanta before finding success on the Desert Mile. At Atlanta, Hornish's car was spewing oil on the right side tires, but he barely missed the show.

He seemed more relieved than excited after climbing from the car.

"Obviously, I've had more laps going into this qualifying than I've had all year long," he said. "We knew it was going to be tough coming in. I know the things I need to do to get my experience level up there.

"There are a lot of things that I don't know, like how the car should handle on short runs versus long runs and things like that. We're just taking our time, trying to learn as much as we can. It's been frustrating but we knew it was going to be tough. We'll keep our head up and keep working away at it."

Earlier this week, Hornish confirmed that he'll be driving full-time for Roger Penske's stock car operation in 2008.

Villeneuve, destined to run the entire season for Bill Davis' Toyota operation in 2008, will roll off 27th after turning a lap of 131.014.

"After practice this morning, we got better and I'm very happy," Villeneuve said. "The car was going sideways a lot and it wasn't very quick. We changed it for qualifying and I didn't know what to expect, [but] it worked out fine.

"The thing was to get it in the show and now we have all day to work on the car and see where we can run with long runs."

Carpentier, who has taken over the No. 10 ride from Scott Riggs for the final two races of the season, qualified 24th. He led seven laps en route to a 22nd-place finish at Watkins Glen.

"I was on the wall when Jimmie Johnson went out and I looked at him going into Turn 1 and I was like, 'Man, I am really slow getting in that corner,' " Carpentier said. "He really got deep, and of course, I am not even close to what he does.

"That is what I got in my [mind] and I said, 'I am going to do a 26.4 [second lap]' and I keep doing it, doing it. ... That's what I had in my mind actually before I left and ... it worked out, so it's great."

When you add Juan Montoya to the mix, it's believed to be the first time three Indianapolis 500 winners have competed in a NASCAR race. In 1969, 500 champions A.J. Foyt and Parnelli Jones were joined by future winners Al Unser and Mario Andretti at Riverside International Raceway.