Papis sees improvement after Happy Hour practice

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Max Papis attacks an interviewer's question in the same way he attacks Watkins Glen in a Cup car: no holds barred.

When asked if he thought his driving style was best suited for Sunday's race on the road course that winds its way through the rolling farmland of the Finger Lakes region, Papis' response was direct.

"I think those things are B.S., driving style and this and that," Papis said. "You're a race car driver, you're either fast or you're slow. I analyze how you need to be fast in some places and how you need to be fast in other places. For example, I look at who is fast here, who is fast at Sonoma, who is fast at Michigan. And I think I know the different driving styles for the different drivers and I can pick a way to go fast at different tracks.

Marcos Ambrose

Heluva Good! at The Glen

Practice 2 speeds

Pos.	Driver	Speed
1.	Marcos Ambrose	122.643
2.	Sam Hornish Jr.	122.379
3.	Jimmie Johnson	122.335
4.	Juan Montoya	122.316
5.	Max Papis	122.267

Practice 3 speeds

Pos.	Driver	Speed
1.	Marcos Ambrose	123.021
2.	Jimmie Johnson	122.483
3.	Denny Hamlin	122.189
4.	Carl Edwards	122.149
5.	Boris Said	122.096

• Practice 2 | Practice 3

"But I feel that I never had this trick of saying, 'I'm good at this track, I suck at the other.' I try to make every single track my favorite track."

Making his 10th Cup start, Papis has proven to be a quick learner. The Italian was fifth-quickest in the first of two practices Saturday, and backed that up by posting the 13th-best time in final practice. He'll roll off the grid 16th Sunday, and is happy with the progress he's made this weekend, and this season.

"I'm learning," Papis said. "I'm a student of NASCAR and I'm getting to understand better what the car needs and how the NASCAR garages work. I'm making good strides. I'm extremely proud of myself to feel that all the work that I've done so far is finally coming together. There's a good satisfaction to feel that you get a confirmation of your abilities."

Papis has been a winner in nearly every form of motorsports: sports cars, Formula 300 and Champ Car. And he wants to prove himself in stock cars, which is why he downplayed his place on the leaderboard Saturday.

"We continue to make improvements to the team," Papis said. "It's not about the car. It's about our attitude and the way we go about racing. The thing we're proving is that we're showing people that we're here and when everything lines up, we can be a contender for the top 10."

Papis' best two finishes in 2009 have come on two radically different tracks. He finished a career-best 12th at Sonoma in his most recent start, but recorded a 18th in his first visit to Talladega.

In some forms of racing, saving your equipment until the end of the race is one key to a good finish. But Papis has learned in NASCAR, you better be on the edge every lap to run up front.

"I think nowadays, racing is different," Papis said. "I don't know much about NASCAR in the past, but I can tell you I don't think there is any conserving of anything out there. Maybe there is a little bit of thinking about how deeply you can use the brake because of the fact that the brake efficiency fades away. But I doubt that there is anyone out there pacing himself at all. And that's no different than the eight races that I've run."

• Trackside: Papis joins the SPEED crew at Watkins Glen

Australia's Marcos Ambrose cemented himself as one of the favorites by topping the leaderboard in both practices. He went 122.643 mph in the first 45 minutes, then topped 123 mph in the final hour. Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Boris Said rounded out the final practice top five.

There were a number of incidents in the two Saturday sessions, none of which wound up being serious enough to force anyone to pull out a backup. Said went spinning off the course in Turn 10 and wound up wheel-deep in the gravel trap during the first practice, but after the team swept away several large piles of small stones in the garage area, he was able to go back out (watch video). Brian Vickers, Bobby Labonte, David Stremme and Sam Hornish Jr. -- who was second-fastest in the morning session -- all spun but made no contact.