Carpentier tops Friday at Montreal

Carpentier, who had been quickest in the opening practice on Thursday, set a fastest lap of 1:41:948, at an average speed 95.661 mph. He was the only driver to lap the circuit in less than 102 seconds, and looks now as the clear favorite to take pole.

"I can do a fast lap," Carpentier said. "But to maintain a good lap for the amount of laps we're going have to have to do in the race, I think it's going to be a race of attrition.

"It's going to be tough. When you go into Turn 1, the car doesn't want to stop. We're going to have to manage the car quite a bit."

Michael Valiante, who is also making his NASCAR debut, set the second fastest time in the final practice session of the day, finishing 0.205 seconds off from his countryman in the No. 42 Ganassi Dodge.

Marcos Ambrose backed up his good performance from Thursday by finishing third in the final practice, 0.259 seconds behind the day's benchmark. However he wasn't sure about who was fast and who wasn't today as many drivers seemed to be shortcutting the last chicane.

"We've been competitive all weekend long and in every session that we've been in," said Ambrose. "We've been right up-front there. We're excited about our race package.

"Some guys are driving way over the heads and are missing the chicanes, so it's hard to know who ran the top times and who didn't."

Max Papis and Ron Fellows rounded up the top-five, both drivers setting laps still within less than half a second from Carpentier's. Boris Said was sixth, ahead of Kyle Krisiloff who was the fastest of the non-road specialists.

Andy Lally, Scott Pruett and Steven Wallace completed the top-ten, while the Nextel Cup drivers all missed practice today, as they had to qualify for Sunday's race at Pocono Raceway.

The NAPA Auto Parts 200 starts Saturday at 3:30 pm local time, with qualifying starting shortly after noon.