Aric Almirola in the No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Chevrolet was the top Raybestos Rookie in the first practice session Thursday afternoon at Phoenix.

Aric Almirola, No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Chevrolet
Have you raced here at Phoenix before? "Never been here, never been here. It's an awesome racetrack. I've watched plenty of races from here on TV but I've never been here. This is my first time here. I'm actually just enjoying the weather more so than anything else. It's been cold as heck back home. It's nice to get out here in Phoenix. It's warm and blue skies and that's nice. We've got a good truck. We're decent. We're not great. We hurt a little bit on long runs. We just get too tight. But we're working on that. We'll work real hard in this next practice. It will be a little bit closer to race time. I think we'll work a lot harder there to see what exactly we've got for the race."

Is this place going to change a lot by the time the race starts Friday night? "I don't know. Like I said, I've never been here so I'm not really sure what this place is going to do at nighttime. That's why I've got all the guys around me that have a bunch of experience like Mark , my spotter that have been here so many times and I really lean on those kinds of people and lean on the Busch guys and stuff and see what they've seen in times past here." I think it's going to change a lot. It was pretty slick out there the first practice with the tire rubber from the Southwest Tour cars and once we got that run off times started getting a little faster. It seemed like as tires got older they just slowed down a lot. I think tires and track position are going to be key tomorrow night. Typically is in all of our races. I think tires are going to be pretty important tomorrow night."

Does Phoenix remind you of any other track? "You know, Turn 1 is a lot like Gateway and then Turn 3 and 4 are a lot like Milwaukee or a Loudon, really wide and you've got to carry a lot of momentum through there. Definitely some similarities in the racetrack but that dogleg in the backstretch makes it it's sort of it's own racetrack. I like it. It's fun to be here and I can't wait to race on it. I think it's going to be kind of cool to race. I've watched races here in the past where they've run two-wide for the majority of the race. I think as far as that goes, it will be good."

Do you those big, flat racetracks? "I do. It's just something that I have a knack for or if our team as a whole has a package that's works pretty decent at these racetracks. We've seemed to salvage some top-10s at most of these racetracks and run well so hopefully we can do that same thing. I'll get a lot of seat time tomorrow in the Busch car, going back and forth with the truck. Hopefully that will help out a lot with the truck race and then hopefully running all the laps in the truck race will then transfer over and help a lot come Saturday when it comes time to race the Busch race."

Kraig Kinser will be making his first Craftsman Truck Series start since Las Vegas in September (race No. 19) and first-ever at Phoenix on Friday night. In 17 starts this season, Kinser's best finish was a ninth-place effort at Las Vegas. His best start was third at Texas (race No. 9) in June.

Kraig Kinser, No. 46 Chevy Silverado Chevrolet
"I think we'll be pretty good. I've been looking forward to getting started. We'll know a little bit more after the second practice and see what it's like about race time. We'll know a little bit more then. It's real good getting back in the truck, back in the seat getting some more laps out on the track. The guys are carrying a little momentum from their win with Clint at Texas. It's good coming to Phoenix."

Does it put more pressure on you knowing that you have a good truck? "I don't think Texas was an eye-opener where it was a good truck. I always knew it was a good truck and all the guys at Morgan-Dollar knew we had a good truck also. That truck was a truck I never got to race. It was one we just always tested. We tested it pretty good and Clint was pretty happy. It looked really good on TV. I think all the trucks in our stable are getting a little bit better. I'm getting a little bit better and it's really starting to show. The trucks are helping. As good as they are, they're helping me more than going out in a bad truck and stuff like that would help me. I'm really happy and really confident coming into Phoenix."

Do you like this track? "It's different. I really don't know if I like it yet. It's definitely a unique track. The dogleg in the back is definitely going to be fun. It's fun going around in practice. We'll see how it races."

What have you been doing when you haven't been racing in the Craftsman Truck Series? "We've been trying to stay in the seat a little bit. I'm trying to keep the break at a minimum so I have time in the seat and more laps around any racetrack in anything. It definitely hurt me getting started here, just not being in the truck for a while. It took me a couple of extra laps more than what it would and we had a little struggle at the beginning of practice. We got all our truck stuff figured out and I got better and we were really good in Raybestos Rookie practice. Hopefully we'll have a good practice here at the end with the sun going down more like race conditions tomorrow night.