Notebook: Polesitter Kahne smacks wall in Cup practice

Notebook: Polesitter Kahne smacks wall in Cup practice


KANSAS CITY, Kan.—Kahne Kahne, who won the pole for Sunday’s Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway, took a step backward during Saturday’s final Sprint Cup 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.
Johnson, Biffle, Martin spin
With just over a minute left in the final practice, four-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson spun off Turn 4 at the 1.5-mile racetrack. Johnson wasn’t alone in his misadventure. The treacherous corner also got the better of Greg Biffle and Mark Martin.
In cool, blustery conditions, Biffle slid through the infield grass during Saturday’s first practice session, doing very minor damage to the right rear of his car. After repairs, he was back on track and later posted the 10th-best 10-lap average speed of the session.
Martin posted the fastest lap of Happy Hour on his second circuit, but before he completed the next one, he was spinning off Turn 4. Despite leading the final practice, Martin will start from the rear of the field Sunday because of an engine change during Friday’s prequalifying practice session.
Biffle isn’t giving up
Despite a rocky start to the Chase, Biffle hasn’t abandoned his quest for a Cup title to go with his championships in NASCAR’s Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series.
“I’m not going to look at anything other than we are trying to win a championship for our No. 16 team,” said Biffle, who is 140 points behind Chase leader Denny Hamlin with eight races left in the season. “We’re not out of it, but it’s going to be an uphill battle, because there are a bunch of good guys up there.
“Anything can happen. Guys can have trouble. We’ve seen the 11 car (Hamlin) have engine trouble and mechanical things. We’ve seen the wheels fall off the 18 (Kyle Busch). The 48 car’s (Johnson) first Chase race wasn’t very good, and a few leading up to it weren’t very good. … We’ll just keep our head down, and when we get to three or four to go, we’ll make another assessment of where we are.”
By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(October 2, 2010)