Notebook: Kahne picks up where Elliott left off

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Bill Elliott was strong in last year's race at Kansas Speedway, leading four times for 115 laps and finishing second. The only reason he didn't win was because Ryan Newman played the fuel-mileage game and won.

Kasey Kahne

Elliott has since semi-retired and isn't driving this weekend. But the No. 9 Dodge is back in the capable hands of rookie Kasey Kahne.

Kahne put the car on the outside of the front row after a fast lap of 179.253 mph, edging Evernham Motorsports teammate Jeremy Mayfield.

"Bill kept a couple of his cars from last year, and that was one of them," Kahne said. "That was his favorite car. It's his Brickyard car, and he loved that thing. It's a different car but it's the same car that we came close with at the Michigans, the Californias, Vegas, and Texas. It's a good one."

Kahne is still looking for his first Nextel Cup victory after finishing second five times this season.

"I can't wait for Sunday," Kahne said. "I watched the race in review last Thursday and watched Bill Elliott kick ass all day long and end up running second. I'm really excited to go racing here."

If Jeremy were king

Mayfield said the first thing he'd change if he were in charge of NASCAR would be to put the top 10 drivers in the Chase for the Nextel Cup on their own points system. That way, if a driver had trouble, he would lose points to only nine drivers and not 42.

Jeremy Mayfield

The other thing would be to shuffle the last 10 races around, removing Talladega, Martinsville and New Hampshire from the final 10.

"I think I'd have Kansas, Chicago, Darlington, I'd even bring Rockingham back, California, Charlotte, Phoenix, Homestead and I'd run two Richmonds," said Mayfield, who won at Richmond last month. "You can go around and get all the drivers' personal preferences for racetracks. I betcha wouldn't see any Talladegas except Junior. He'd be the only one there and we'd all be somewhere else.

"You wouldn't see Loudon or Martinsville, but I bet Kansas would be there. Michigan is great. California is great. Pocono, we'd run two or three Poconos and Darlington. It'd be Pocono, Richmond and California would be the only ones we'd run. That would be about all I'd change, and I don't know if I would take points away for cussing. Every once in awhile I let one slip, and I don't want to lose 25 points."

Gordon doesn't feel sorry for Junior

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Jeff Gordon won't feel sorry for Earnhardt Jr. if Gordon were to win the championship by fewer than 25 points over Junior.

"I would hate it for him," Gordon said. "I'm not even thinking about that. That's not my situation. It's theirs. I hate it for them, but it is what it is. (NASCAR) made their decision, and everybody's going to have to live with it. Our job is to win the championship."

Earnhardt Jr. was docked 25 points for inappropriate language after winning last weekend at Talladega.

"I'd like to do it to make Junior feel better," Gordon said with a smile. "I'm thinking of him."

Rudd slows from practice

Ricky Rudd was fastest in Friday's practice but qualified only 12th. What went wrong? He wasn't sure.

Ricky Rudd

"We won practice and that was great, but I'm really disappointed," Rudd said. "I just couldn't get a hold of the racetrack like I did early on. We were on the borderline earlier in the day of not having enough grip, and I don't know if it was just the heat in the racetrack or what.

"It was about 8-10 degrees hotter, and I just couldn't get a hold of it. It's not like it did anything wrong, it just didn't stick like it did in practice. It's unfortunate. We had a real fast racecar and still have a fast racecar, but we just didn't quite get it figured out for qualifying. From that aspect it's pretty disappointing."

Still, Rudd's 12th-place was his second-best non-plate qualifying effort of the season.

"I'm disappointed in one respect, but really just tickled to death," Rudd said. "We're disappointed that we didn't win the pole, whereas early in the year we were disappointed because we might have used a provisional. We've come a long way."

Truex quickest in Busch Happy Hour

Martin Truex Jr. led Busch Series Happy Hour with a lap of 171.942 mph. Mike Bliss was second at 171.832, with Mike McLaughlin third at 171.565. Kyle Busch was fourth, with Ron Hornaday fifth.