Johnson, Kahne to backup cars after wrecks in final MIS practice

Two Hendrick Motorsports teammates will be in backup cars for the Pure Michigan 400.

Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne will start at the rear of the field Sunday afternoon after both hit the wall and severely damaged their primary cars in final practice. Johnson got loose in Turn 1 and his No. 48 Chevrolet spun to the left and then snapped to the right and into the outside wall.

"Just lost it on corner entry getting into Turn 1," said Johnson. "The first lap at speed and the thing just rotated around. The effort level is high and you've got to run in there committed. I did so and unfortunately the rear grip just wasn't there in the car and around it came."

Kahne got out of the groove shortly after Johnson's accident and damaged the right side of his No. 5 Chevrolet.

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"Up to that point I never had any tendencies of loose there at all. It was kind of interesting – made a change, came back out and I was coming into (Turn) 1, I basically lost my right rear and was spinning as I was getting into the corner just sideways," Kahne said.

"Saved it, but then I was just going too fast and I got up in the gray and it went up and ended up running into the wall. So, it was kind of out of nowhere. I was a bit surprised that happened. Our Liftmaster Chevrolet has been pretty close this morning and thought it was about the same the first run and then that happened on the second run."

Those two incidents, along with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. brushing the wall in Turn 2 highlighted the session. Fortunately for Stenhouse, his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing team will fix his car for the race.

Sunday's polesitter, Brad Keselowski, was fastest in the session at 200.865 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was second fastest at 200.172 mph.

Joey Logano (199.734 mph), Ryan Blaney (199.673 mph), and Kyle Busch (199.529 mph) rounded out the top five. The rest of the top 10 were Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suarez, and Jamie McMurray.

UP NEXT: The Pure Michigan 400 at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.