Gordon looking to take care of business at Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Jeff Gordon accomplished the first order of business Friday at Kansas Speedway, putting together his best qualifying effort in three months. Next on his "to do list:" make up ground on the other Chase contenders.

For Gordon, lessons learned during Saturday's two practice sessions in cool and windy weather were critical in that respect. He was second-quickest in the first practice and jumped into the top five late in Happy Hour to provide some additional confidence heading into Sunday's Price Chopper 400.

Price Chopper 400

Final Practice

Pos.	Driver	Speed
1.	Mark Martin	171.027
2.	Jimmie Johnson	170.908
3.	Greg Biffle	170.837
4.	Joey Logano	170.800
5.	Jeff Gordon	170.751

• Prac. 1 | Prac. 2 | Prac. 3
• Video: Practice spins

"We're still in it and that's the thing, we didn't take ourselves out of it in the first two races," Gordon said. "[It] didn't go quite the way we were hoping that they would, but we hope that our strong tracks and performances are coming up. Still a lot of racing left."

There were some minor incidents Saturday, although Jimmie Johnson was fortunate not to damage his No. 48 Chevrolet after he spun sideways across the entrance to pit road while running in the high line off of Turn 4. His car appeared to have suffered no appreciable damage.

Two other incidents appeared to be the result of cold tires on a cold track. Greg Biffle spun coming out of Turn 4 early in the first session and Mark Martin duplicated that feat in the second. Both came to rest in the infield grass and were able to continue without major repairs.

In fact, Martin turned the fastest lap of Happy Hour -- 171.027 mph -- as he, Johnson and Gordon placed three Hendrick cars in top five. The other two? Gibbs teammates Kyle Busch and Joey Logano.

Even though Gordon finished 11th last weekend at Dover, several other Chase drivers -- including race-winner Johnson -- had better days. That dropped Gordon to eighth in the standings, but only 83 points behind leader Denny Hamlin.

"[With Jimmie] winning and a lot of the guys in the Chase finishing up front, it wasn't the performance we were hoping for," Gordon said. "We know that we have to step it up, not fall back. We fell back to eighth, but we really didn't lose that many points."

Gordon specifically pointed to dreadful qualifying efforts as the primary reason for his recent struggles. But he'll start third behind Kasey Kahne and Paul Menard on Sunday. Now, Gordon wants to know what some of the Chase outsiders have learned that his No. 24 Chevrolet team has yet to decipher.

"Guys outside the Chase -- Paul Menard, A.J. Allmendinger, Jamie McMurray -- these guys that are performing really well," Gordon said, "you start to go, 'OK, where are we missing it, how are these guys able to find some speed and where do we stack up?'

"Those are things that we will look at, even though we'll focus on trying to win a championship and get the best finish in the Chase, we're also looking at our competitors that are picking up momentum and seeing what they're doing and maybe see if there's something we're missing that we could focus on in the offseason."

Gordon's name hasn't been prominently mentioned among the usual Chase suspects, which is alternately good and bad news. Many drivers like being outside of the spotlight, but in Gordon's case, he'd rather be the hunted than the hunter.

"The thing is that if you're flying under the radar, there's a reason," Gordon said. "It's because you really haven't performed. If you're the bull's eye, it's because you've been in that position before and you are capable of performing at a high level.

"I'd rather be in that position. I would rather be out front, leading laps, winning races and having everybody gunning for you because you're still in more control."

• Complete Coverage

For the past four seasons, that's been Johnson. So does Gordon keep one eye on what's happening in the No. 48 garage?

"It's not so much watching what they're doing, it's knowing what they're capable of doing," Gordon said. "You can never count them out. It doesn't matter what their season's gone like, the first race of the Chase or even a race like this weekend, they are so capable of coming back and putting wins together.

"You always have to give them a lot of respect and ... all you can do is focus on your own program and your team and get the maximum points and performance out of it. You can't control what they're going to do, but you also know that you really can't give up a race because those guys are that strong."

Pole-sitter Kahne hits wall in practice

Kahne Kahne took a step backward during final practice.

Kahne smacked the Turn 1 wall and damaged the right side of his No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford.

"I just overshot Turn 1 a little bit and got loose and got into the wall," Kahne said. "But we won't have to go to a backup. It didn't affect any of the wheels -- just the body."

The contact with the wall occurred after Kahne had completed 14 laps. He returned to the track after repairs to his car and turned a succession of competitive laps in the 32-second range. Kahne didn't expect any negative effects for Sunday's race.

"No, it won't have any impact on [Sunday]," he said.

The Sporting News Wire Service contributed to this report.