Raybestos Rookie Todd Kluever posted 12th-best time during the final practice session for the Chevy Silverado 150. He will make his first start at Phoenix in Friday's race.   

Todd Kluever, No. 50 Shell Rotella T Ford:
How is your truck? "I think it's pretty decent in race trim. If we can get it just a little bit tighter in our bonsai run or mock qualifying run it will be really good there, too. My Rotella guys brought a really good Ford F-150 out here, not that I would expect anything different out of them lately. They've been spot on the last half of the season and I'm really excited. I think we've got as good a shot as any. I say that every week but I feel that every week. I know it hasn't happened yet so maybe one of these days I'll get it right."

This is your first race at Phoenix. What do you think of the track? "I think it's a lot of fun. It seems like a real driver's racetrack and it seems like you can really race here. There's two grooves and it's exciting. It's nice to come here, to a place that not just hold it on the floorboards and you have what you have type situation."

Do you have to get the truck handling well through the center of the corner? "You've got to get through the center of the corner, but you've also got to get off the corner, so there's a little bit of both. And with the corners being different on each end, you can get through one better than you get through the other. You've got to compromise a little bit, but it's definitely a neat place to race."

Will the track get slicker with more and more rubber? "You know, I don't know. I don't have enough experience here. For me it's been a little slicker after the tour cars have been out there so I'd imagine that it probably will but that will just make it more fun."

You've had two practice sessions today but will qualify and race tommorow. "I'm not a big fan of that qualifying first thing in the morning. As a driver, I think it's hard to come into the racetrack in morning and the first lap you have to run on the racetrack that day has to be the best one. But it's the way this game is played and we'll have a pretty decent truck in qualifying tomorrow. I just want to get a decent starting spot and maybe we can do something with our Rotella Ford in the race."

Because you didn't have to qualify today, did that change your approach to practice? Could you experiment more? "We always come into practice with really the same approach. Mike Beam [crew chief] is very, very good at having a plan and sticking to that plan. He touches on things that he needs to touch on and gains the information and then he can go home tonight and digest it all. He's very good at that. He and Hal have a really good game plan coming into every practice and that's kind of how we do it. We work every practice the same."

Since you've never been here before, did you use a video game to prepare yourself? "Actually, I didn't but I do have a video game system. I watched a tape of last year's race: where everybody was running, what kind of lines and stuff like that. We always seem to run pretty well at these places: if I've never been here we seem to run well or if Mike's never been there we seem to run well. We ran top-five at Nashville, too, and I had never been there and Mike had never been there. These guys do a tremendous job in the shop being prepared and brining good trucks to the racetrack and we have a lot of notes to pull from. I like to think I can pick up on the racetrack pretty quick. I'm just anxious to get to tomorrow and get racing."

Where do you pass here? "I think you pass wherever you're good enough. The neat thing about a place like this is people are going to be better at different ends of the racetrack. You're going to have to pass wherever your truck is good enough to do it: getting underneath somebody from 1 to 2, back into the dogleg on the backstretch seems like a good place or getting underneath somebody off of 4. I think the outside groove here is also going to be pretty fast. You're going to have a lot of options on where to pass. It's just that you're going to have to do it where you're the best."