NASCAR: Johnson crashes, goes to a back-up car

Jimmie Johnson had posted the fastest time in Sprint Cup practice on Friday but that was before he drilled the Turn 4 wall at Kentucky Speedway and completely destroyed his primary car as a result.

The incident occurred 25 minutes into the 85-minute second session of the weekend and began when Johnson overdrove the corner in Turn 3, slid up into the marbles, and connected with the outside retaining wall. It took crew chief Chad Knaus only a few minutes to diagnose the car and order his crew to retrieve their back-up car.

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"I just got wide and evidently the track is dirty wide," Johnson said. "I didn't have anything go wrong, I just got wide and the car just started going straight and it wouldn't turn. I was in the marbles. I couldn't see the line where the track was clean and dirty and it just kept going straight and straight and straight and hit the wall."

Johnson was since overtaken at the top of the speed charts before massive thunderstorms and hail brought the session to a halt. Since the incident occurred before time trials on Friday, the six-time Sprint Cup champion will be allowed to start where he qualifies.

Kentucky is one of four tracks on the current Sprint Cup schedule that Johnson has not won at. He's 0-5 at the Bluegrass State intermediate with a best finish of third in 2011. It's worth noting that Kentucky has a newly repaved surface and layout that teams are attacking for the first time this weekend. He's also been held winless at Watkins Glen, Chicago and Homestead.