By Micah Roberts
Posted 03/02/2012 at 04:34 PM

Tony Stewart had the fastest lap in Friday’s first practice session at Phoenix International Raceway in preparation for Sunday‘s Subway Fresh Fit 500. Stewart topped the charts with two minutes remaining in the 90 minute session while in qualifying trim................ The first practice was basically split up into two sessions by the teams. The first half was used by most teams in race trim while the second half was mostly short runs in qualifying trim. ........................ During the first half, the fastest cars in race trim were Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman. The times drastically increased when Jeff Burton came out with a qualifying set-up and went to the top of charts. As more cars started changing over, new top times for the session continued to be set with Stewart ultimately finishing on top. Burton finished 15th fastest overall.......................... The practice schedule this week is another one of those goofy ones where the teams do all their practices for both race and qualifying set-ups on Friday, then qualify on Saturday with no other runs to prepare for race day. Everything a team needs to know for Sunday’s race has to be found in one of the two Friday sessions.................... In the final practice, most teams will go back to race trim and do their final tinkering. The only problem is that once a team finds that perfect equation, they have to tear it down and re-set it for Saturday’s qualifying.......................... NASCAR has to have some good reason for this type of practice scheduling, but can’t think of any other than fuel conservation and helping under-funded teams with the cost of tires -- teams of which rarely practice anyway knowing they are starting and parking............................. Next week things go back to normal in Las Vegas with the traditional qualifying practice and qualifying on Friday and then the final two practice sessions on Saturday.......................... Here’s a look at the Top-5 practice times from the first session: 1. Tony Stewart 138.680 mph (32 laps for 134.737 mph average), 2. Mark Martin 138.611 mph (19 laps for 134.404 mph average), 3. Greg Biffle 138.568 mph (32 laps for 134.186 average), 4. Ryan Newman 138.493 mph (34 laps for 133.586 average), 5. Kasey Kahne 138.408 mph (31 laps for 135.001 average - fastest overall) ........................... Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr and Ryan Newman all wrecked in the final few minutes of the session. Truex Jr may not have to go with a back-up........................... The final practice session on Friday should be a little more telling to who will do well in Sunday’s race. Right now, it’s hard to ignore last year’s Phoenix fall race winner, Kasey Kahne, in his new No. 5 Hendrick ride, a car that has visited victory lane in the desert multiple times.