kansas city weather

Buddy Shacklette - AHN Motor Sports Reporter
Kansas City, KA (AHN) - A race that was red-flagged early on in the first hour of it is under a second red flag Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

Two-time NASCAR Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart was aware of the threatening weather and with the race more than halfway over gambled on fuel and stayed out front instead of pitting.

Stewart, wheeling the No. 20 Chevrolet, was leading when the skies fell in and had led just 10 of 49 laps of the 267-lap Lifelock 400 when the race was red-flagged due to rain.

Sitting behind Stewart on pit road when the race was red-flagged was Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Reed Sorenson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin, Casey Mears, Elliott Sadler and J.J. Yeley.

The other nine Chasers weren't faring as well when the race was postponed.

Carl Edwards, who won last week at Dover, was sitting a respectable 11th, but the other Chasers were in the back half of the field. Kurt Busch (24th), Jimmie Johnson (27th), Hamlin (29th), Jeff Gordon (30th), Matt Kenseth (31st), Martin Truex (32nd), Jeff Burton (40th) were the other.

Burton was behind the lead lap 10 laps due to a failed fuel cell while and early wreck had chaser Kyle Busch in 43rd, 47 laps off the pace.

Truex had led a pair of laps, Kenseth led 49 laps, Gordon led six, Dave Blaney led three laps, Johnson led a lap and Kurt Busch led a race-best 77 laps.
Even after he jumped to the top of the board by circling Kansas Speedway's 1.5-mile track in 30.846 seconds Friday afternoon, Jimmie Johnson didn't figure he'd start this afternoon's LifeLock 400 on the pole.

Of course, he didn't expect he'd be last in line either.

Johnson, who wrongly assumed he'd be caught in qualifying, had to surrender his top spot after running into the wall on Turn 3 during Nextel Cup practice here yesterday afternoon.

"The car was kind of loose," Johnson said. "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, who sits in third place in the 12-driver Chase for the Nextel Cup heading into today's race, had to pull out his backup car, resulting in his demotion to the back of the field.

"The damage to the No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS is more significant than it may look from a cosmetic standpoint," said Doug Duchardt, Hendrick Motorsports vice president for development. "The entire left side of the car is caved in, so basically it is wrecked.

"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 at the back is the best option in the Chase."

Johnson has had success in the car this season, driving it to victory in California earlier this month.

"I'll have to start in the back, but this track is wide and good, and we can race anywhere," Johnson said as he talked with a television crew in the garage area while his crew pushed out his backup car. "I really don't have any big concerns besides getting run over right now with the backup car."

● UNFRIENDLY WELCOME?: Former Formula One and Indianapolis 500 champion Jacques Villeneuve, who finished 21st in last week's NASCAR Craftsmen Truck Series race in Las Vegas, is planning to make his Nextel Cup debut next Sunday when the series moves to the 2.66-mile tri-oval at Talladega Superspeedway.

At least a couple of his competitors aren't happy about a NASCAR rookie racing in a Car of Tomorrow event so late in the season.

"I am a big fan of Jacques, but I think this is not the right decision," Jeff Gordon said on Friday. "I didn't think it was the right decision with David Gilliland. Nothing against their talent, or anything else, I just look at that race in the Chase - why? You want to run a race, go to Atlanta, go to one of the mile-and-a-half tracks. I am very surprised that was approved as his first Cup race. "

Johnson echoed Gordon's sentiments