Johnson crashes in final practice, still leads session (cont'd)

The damage to Johnson's car didn't look particularly significant, but Doug Duchardt, vice president of development for Hendrick Motorsports, said it was worse than it seemed.

"The damage. . . is more significant than it may look from a cosmetic standpoint," Duchardt said. "The entire left side of the car is caved in, so basically it is wrecked.

Autostock

The backup plan

"We asked NASCAR and they said we could pull out the backup car. Aero here at Kansas is very important and given the option to use a backup car that we know is 100 percent, even to start in the back, is the best option in the Chase."

Johnson is third in the Nextel Cup standings heading into Sunday's third event of the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup, four points behind Hendrick teammate Gordon and two points behind second-place Stewart.

After rolling off the grid in the pole position Sunday, Johnson will have to drop to the rear of the inside line of the field on the pace laps.

In the 50-minute morning practice, which was run in cooler conditions, Johnson was fifth-fastest (171.195 mph) behind Greg Biffle's Ford (172.678), Kyle Busch's Chevrolet (171.761), Matt Kenseth's Ford (171.374) and Clint Bowyer's Chevrolet (171.222).

Biffle turned 29 laps and was 30th in Happy Hour, at 166.605 mph.

Biffle, who finished second last weekend at Dover in a No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Car of Tomorrow, said he wasn't sure if he'd sleep well Saturday night or not.

"Sometimes it's worse because you think you've got a car that can win, so now you're nervous about whether that car is going to run up front all day," Biffle said. "And then sometimes it's unknown and sometimes you're pretty confident about it.

"So, there's kind of three different scenarios there. I've been where I've had the fastest car by a tenth or two, on top of the sheet and all that, then been nervous as can be because I'm afraid I'm going to do something wrong during the race, you know, and we've got such a good car.

"Yes, you do normally feel at ease when you've got a good car. That's typically your mindset."

Despite his misfortune, Johnson might sleep well Saturday night because his intermediate track record this season includes finishes of third, first, first, 38th at Texas, 10th, 19th, 37th at Chicagoland, third and first.

Two of the victories came on 1.5-mile speedways, earlier this season at Las Vegas and Atlanta.