By Micah Roberts
Posted 03/02/2012 at 09:22 PM

Martin Truex Jr led the way with the fastest lap during the final practice session Friday in preparation for Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. With less than a minute to go in the session Truex Jr passed the top time his MWR teammate, Clint Bowyer, had just set five minutes earlier with a top speed of 139.481 mph. ........................ Truex Jr’s speed was the fastest of both 90 minute sessions on a day the drivers had to battle with 30 mph winds. In the first practice session, Tony Stewart led the way at 138.680 mph. In both practices, the fastest times came from those in a mock qualifying trim. It was thought that the final practice session may have been used primarily for race set-up, but with about 35 minutes to go several cars changed over into their qualifying trim for the second time between Friday’s two sessions. ........................ The driver who stood out in both race and qualifying trim was Jimmie Johnson who ran a session high 62 laps. Despite all the laps run, Johnson still managed to average 135.001 mph, something only 12 other drivers were able to do while driving considerably less laps. ........................... Dale Earnhardt Jr stood out in race trim early on along with Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard and Greg Biffle. ................... That’s all the practice we get for the weekend. It’s a bunch of jumbled times with little indication of who really is fast in race conditions. The best way to dissect what happened today to get a read on who will be fast Sunday and who is just fast in qualifying trim is looking at the average speeds and, in particular, best 10 consecutive lap average. Kahne led the way in that category followed by Johnson, Stewart, Kyle Busch and Mark Martin. ..........................top 5 speeds rom final practice: 1. Martin Truex Jr 139.481 mph (37 laps for 135.486 average speed), 2. Clint Bowyer 139.227 mph (27 laps for 135.075 average), 3. Juan Pablo Montoya 139.002 mph (37 laps for 135.610 average), 4. Kurt Busch 138.841 mph (35 laps for 135.219 average), 5. Jeff Gordon 138.244 mph (59 laps for 134.962 average) .................. Matt Kenseth had to go to a back-up after slapping the wall early in the session. Joe Nemechek and David Gilliland also banged the wall, but no word on whether they had to go to a back-up (as if it really matters).