Kahne takes blame for blunder in Nextel Cup event

HAMPTON, Ga. — Driver Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw buried his head against his battered car while the crew worked furiously to put it back together.

It was no use. A mental mistake at Atlanta Motor Speedway likely cost Kahne any chance of making a run at his first NASCAR Nextel Cup Series championship.

Tony Stewart won Sunday's Bass Pro Shops 500, and Matt Kenseth remained the leader in the 10-driver, 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Kahne, who had the fastest car in practice leading up to the event, had overcome a rough start to work his way up to fourth place when his race suddenly ended.

Ignoring the advice of his spotter, the driver of the No. 9 Dodge drifted high going into Turn 1 and got tangled up with David Stremme, taking both drivers out.

"You want to hurt yourself," a disconsolate Kahne said. "The race is over, and we had a shot at winning. That's all I wanted to do. I was just upset and frustrated with myself. There's no one else you can blame."

Kahne was eighth in the Chase but had hopes of cutting into Kenseth's 99-point advantage. But the 38th-place finish cost Kahne another spot in the standings and left him 210 points behind the leader — likely too much ground to make up in the final three races of the season.

"It's going to be tough to win it now unless everybody dropped out the last three races," Kahne said.

Stremme was furious at Kahne, confronting him in the garage. The two had an animated exchange alongside the No. 9 car before the rookie stormed back to his hauler.

"I don't know what he was doing, but we both ended up in the wall," said Stremme, who finished 39th. "I couldn't do nothing. I understand he was faster, and I moved up on the top side to let him by, but it was pretty blatant what happened."

Kahne acknowledged the collision was all his fault. The spotter told him Stremme was on the outside, but the advice went unheeded.

"I thought I had cleared him for some reason, but I totally knew he was there," Kahne recalled. "I don't know. Just a brain fade. We lost a lot of points. We lost a great finish, maybe even a win for us today. These are races you've got to step up and perform under pressure and do everything you need to do, and we didn't do that today."

Actually, the failure wasn't a team effort.

"The track was coming to us. Everything was working for the No. 9, and I mean everything," Kahne said. "It was all my fault."

Meanwhile, two-time Cup champion Stewart — who didn't qualify for the Chase this year — again stole the spotlight from the title contenders.

"If we were in the Chase, we wouldn't have been able to do what we did at Kansas City," Stewart said, referring to his Oct. 1 win. "We wouldn't have been able to take the chance of running out of gas."

Last year, Stewart won his second points championship without winning any of the 10 Chase events. "There's a lot of pressure on those guys in the Chase," he said. "Sometimes, it gets you off your game a little bit and, sometimes, you just have to be more conservative than you'd want to be."

Vancouver, Wash., native Greg Biffle, who isn't part of the Chase, finished fifth.

Runner-up Jimmie Johnson moved up a place to second in the Chase standings, 26 points behind Kenseth.

Notes

• Kentucky native Nicky Hayden took advantage of a rare error by five-time champion Valentino Rossi of Italy to claim his first MotoGP world title.

Rossi, who went into the season finale in Valencia, Spain, with an eight-point lead in the standings, slid off into the gravel as he lost control on the fifth lap and lost more than 25 seconds to the leaders.

Rossi managed to finish 13th, but was unable to pick up enough points to prevent the 25-year-old Hayden from taking the title with a third-place finish behind Troy Bayliss and Loris Capirossi. The previous American to win the premier-class title was Kenny Roberts Jr. in 2000.

• Jason Line lost to Richie Stevens Jr. in the Pro Stock final in the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals, but picked up enough points in the preliminary rounds to clinch the season championship in his category. Line beat teammate Greg Anderson in the semifinals to secure the title.

Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), Jack Beckman (Funny Car) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) won their divisions.

• Formula One legend Michael Schumacher will stay on at Ferrari as an assistant to new chief executive Jean Todt. "The basis of my future will be that of a super assistant to Jean," Schumacher said at the Ferrari World Finals, the team's traditional season wrap-up in Monza, Italy.

Seven-time F1 champion Schumacher, who retired from racing last week, did not elaborate on what his new role would involve. The German said he needed to time to reflect on what he might be able to offer Ferrari.

"At the moment, I don't have a definite answer," Schumacher said. "I want to take myself away from the world of Formula One for a few months to think about my life. Then I'll have a better idea of what I can do for Ferrari."