• Speeds: Practice 1 | Practice 2 | Practice 3

LOUDON, N.H. -- It's a known fact that "winning practice" counts for virtually nothing in Sprint Cup racing -- but Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates figuratively said "take that" in two incident-free practices Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

CGR's Juan Montoya, victim of the weather and a setup tweak in Friday's qualifying session, swept both Saturday practices in his No. 42 Dodge, posting a best lap of 29.916 seconds, an average speed of 127.316 mph, in Happy Hour.

Rain man

Reed Sorenson didn't want his qualifying effort washed out by the rain. So he decided to stay out to wait it out.

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In fact, Ganassi's trio of teams, which has been called out frequently in recent weeks for inconsistent and often sub-par runs on the racetrack, registered the top-three spots in Saturday's first practice and had none of its three cars outside the top-13 spots in any of the three sessions held in the two days on the relatively flat 1-mile oval.

Other than the Ganassi boys, Jeff Gordon, who finished second in both 2007 races here, and Kevin Harvick, who won here in September 2006, were the most consistent in Saturday's practices. Gordon was fifth in the morning session and sixth in the afternoon, while Harvick was sixth in the morning and fourth in the afternoon.

Ganassi's manager of competition, Steve Hmiel, has been with the team only eight months, so had no idea if it was CGR's first top-three sweep in practice -- but he said there was a more vital fact than that.

"We've been terrible -- absolutely awful," the old-school racer Hmiel said after coming down from atop a Ganassi hauler, where he watched Chuck Hossfeld's .001-second victory over Ted Christopher in the Whelen Modified Series race.

"We spent the last two weeks testing real hard and learned a couple things that seemed to apply [at New Hampshire]. We spent a couple days this week at Milwaukee and that seemed to help a lot. Now we're looking for a place that's just like Chicago, so when we go [to Chicagoland Speedway], we've got that figured out.

"It's just been a process of working and working and working -- and getting tired of being embarrassed -- that's really brought us forward."

Montoya's crew made a move after he was third in Friday's opening practice that rendered his car so loose it qualified 32nd for Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301, but he also was hurt when the session was rain-delayed and the 22 cars that went after the delay had better track conditions.

But there's no denying the Colombian open-wheel champion, who's 19th in the driver standings, was optimistic.

"It's encouraging to see all the Ganassi cars running so much better," Montoya said. "We've been really good [Saturday]. We haven't made a lot of changes in race trim since we got here [and] the car feels really good.

"From where we start [Sunday], we've got a long race. We just have to keep adding points."

That's also the case for Montoya's teammates, Reed Sorenson in the No. 41 Dodge, who practiced sixth, third and third in the three sessions, respectively, and is in 34th in the standings; and Dario Franchitti, who was 13th, second and 10th in three practices, but is far down the standings after missing five races with a fractured ankle.

"I was hoping for the sun to peek through so we could get a better idea of race conditions for [Sunday but] I like our Target Dodge heading into race day," Sorenson said. "The car seems to be carrying really good corner speed and that seems to be where our strong point is on the track.

"We worked on dialing-in our race trim setup and the car reacted really well. We could be really good [in the race]."

The practice performance was especially invigorating for the team's newcomer, 2007 IndyCar Series champion Franchitti, who'll start a career best seventh Sunday after shockingly failing to qualify last weekend on the Infineon Raceway road course.

"That was a real low point for us, so to come back here [and] come back strong, really, really was good -- it makes me feel a lot better, I can tell you," Franchitti said. "It was a big confidence booster for everybody on the team and gives everybody a spring in their step again.

"We ran very well at Pocono, pace-wise and Michigan was the same -- so we thought we'd go out to Sonoma and have a good time. But from the time we unloaded off the truck we were in trouble.

"So to come back [to New Hampshire] and have a good Friday and a good Saturday morning, any ways, is really good -- so I hope we can continue that right through Sunday."

That's what Hmiel expressed in a Saturday morning call to owner Ganassi, with a healthy dose of realism.

"I couldn't even promise we'd be 1-2-3 in the second practice and I about guaranteed we won't be 1-2-3 [Sunday]," Hmiel said. "But if we can be not terrible -- and we were terrible at Michigan two weeks ago -- it's a step [in the right direction].

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... to come back here [and] come back strong, really, really was good -- it makes me feel a lot better, I can tell you.

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DARIO FRANCHITTI

"The biggest thing I enjoy about it is the guys [on the crews] are looking up. It's really tough on these guys, they're away from home, they work their tails off and they do the best they can and they get outrun and get outrun and get outrun.

"We hit on a little something that's helping us here at New Hampshire, and that puts a little bump in these guys' step -- even if it's only for one weekend -- but it's gotta help the chemistry."

Franchitti and his crew chief, Steve Lane, said good chemistry was already in play.

"[Saturday] morning, halfway through the [first] session, we went over to the 42's setup and that really was better for us," Franchitti said. "So the team's working well as a three-car team. We've really been pushing hard the last couple months so that's really what's going to move us to that next level, I think."

The veteran crew chief Lane said the step-by-step process continues.

"I think, going to these racetracks the first time there's a lot of big surprises, you know?" Lane said. "You find the ones that [Franchitti's] going to be good at and you find the ones that maybe he's going to struggle a little bit at.

"But we went to Milwaukee and right off the truck [Franchitti] ran good lap times, so we knew coming here we thought 'man, we're going to have a good weekend.' I think that's a product of our teammates being with us at Milwaukee doing some testing and being able to feed off some of their setup information and having a really good test there."

Franchitti, whose best finish in nine races this season has been 22nd, kind of summed up his teammates' race expectations, with the exception of Montoya -- who'd no doubt like to finish like he practiced.

"To finish where we start would be awesome," Franchitti said, laughing. "We'll see. We've just got to do the best we can, good pit stops and I've got to do a good job getting on and off pit road -- race well and see what we can get.

"We've got to be patient, for sure [because] we're not going to get anything with the thing stuck in the fence. There's only so much that we can control. There's definitely some wild driving that goes on here so hopefully we don't get frustrated and hopefully people around about us don't get frustrated, either."