Johnson crashes in final practice, still leads session

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Defending Nextel Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson's magical spell over Kansas Speedway continued Saturday, despite a crash in Happy Hour that necessitated going to a backup car.

Autostock

Front-fender damage

Saturday Speeds

Practice 2

Pos.	Driver	Speed	Time
1.	G. Biffle	172.678	31.272
2.	Ky. Busch	171.761	31.439
3.	M. Kenseth	171.374	31.510
4.	C. Bowyer	171.222	31.538
5.	J. Johnson	171.195	31.543

• Complete Speeds

Happy Hour

Pos.	Driver	Speed	Time
1.	J. Johnson	170.438	31.683
2.	R. Sorenson	169.375	31.882
3.	D. Gilliland	169.242	31.907
4.	J. Gordon	169.130	31.928
5.	T. Stewart	169.062	31.941

• Complete Speeds

Johnson, who on Friday won the Bud Pole Award for Sunday's LifeLock 400, ended the session as the fastest of the 43 cars that practiced, turning 25 laps. After only five laps of final practice, Johnson's No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was atop the chart with a lap in 31.683 seconds, an average speed of 170.438 mph.

But on his sixth lap, as he entered Turn 3 on the bottom of the 1.5-mile speedway, his car -- with which he won his fifth of six victories this season, in September at California -- wobbled, washed up the track to the top of the banking, then swapped ends and hit the wall with its left-front corner first, then the left rear (watch video).

"I just lost it getting into Turn 3," Johnson said. "The car was kind of loose. I thought it was coming to me and so I started opening up my entry into the corners and it just got out from underneath me getting into Turn 3. We definitely didn't need that."

Johnson immediately drove onto pit road and into the garage. The accident occurred only three minutes into the one-hour session, and within a minute of Johnson hitting pit road, his crew chief, Chad Knaus had his backup car rolling out of the transporter.

Twenty-four minutes later, Johnson returned to the racetrack, completed one warm-up lap and then progressively improved from 164.014 mph to 166.333 on his third lap. Johnson slowed to 164.349 mph on his 10th lap of the session before returning to the garage.

The crew made adjustments and Johnson ultimately did 15 more hot laps before the session ended. Johnson's crash was the only interruption in either Saturday practice.

In the final Happy Hour rundown, Johnson was trailed by Ganassi Racing's Reed Sorenson, who ran 43 laps in his No. 41 Dodge, with the best being at 169.375 mph. Rounding out the top five in practice was David Gilliland in a Ford (169.375 mph) and Jeff Gordon (169.131) and Tony Stewart (169.062) in Chevrolets.

While he waited for the crew to prepare his backup Monte Carlo SS, which was last used at Michigan International Speedway, a 2-mile speedway, where it qualified second and finished 19th in the Citizen's Bank 400, Johnson maintained a sense of humor.

"I'll have to start in the back but this track is wide and good -- and we can race anywhere," Johnson said, before breaking into a laugh. "I really don't have any big concerns besides getting run over behind us now with the backup car [as the crew pushed it toward Johnson and an ESPN TV crew]." (Continued)