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]."

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.