Kahne crashes at Bristol, blames McMurray
By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive March 30, 2004
9:57 AM EST (1457 GMT)

McMurray: 'I didn't intentionally wreck him'

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Kasey Kahne's Nextel Cup Series career has started with a flourish few had anticipated.

But on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, the young phenom was finished just as he was getting started.

Only 58 laps into the Food City 500, Kahne was running second to Rusty Wallace when Jamie McMurray dove to Kahne's inside entering Turns 1 and 2.

The two got together, wrecking Kahne hard into the outside wall and demolishing the rear end of the No. 9 Dodge.

Infuriated, Kahne said it was the second such occurrence at the half-mile bullring for the two normally-friendly foes.

"Jamie, I don't know what he's thinking," Kahne said. "I'd just gotten under (Kevin Lepage). (McMurray) took me out the first time I came here, and he did it again. We'll get him back, next couple weeks here."

Kahne is one of the most reserved individuals in the garage, but was visibly frustrated Sunday.

He was so upset, he was literally shaking.

"I don't know about retaliating, but it definitely stays with you," Kahne said. "You don't forget about that. Me and Jamie have always had a lot of good races, raced clean. Except at Bristol.

"At Bristol he's run into me before for no reason. So, I guess maybe I'll have to wait for Bristol some other time and get him back."

McMurray saw it differently.

"You can't wreck somebody on purpose in what we do," McMurray said. "With what's happened with how far we've come with safety and the devastating things that's happened, you can't go out and intentionally wreck somebody.

"I think Kasey was just upset. I didn't intentionally wreck him. I got a good run on him and thought I gave him a lot of room. Hate it, forgot all about it already. That's just somebody being hotheaded."

This marks the second straight week Kahne has been spun out. Last week at Darlington, he was racing Tony Stewart into Turn 3 and was spun out, resulting in a 13th-place finish. Sunday proved much worse, as Kahne was unable to return to the event and finished 40th.

As a result, Kahne dropped from fifth to 11th in the championship point standings.

"Too early in the race," Kahne said. "We had a great racecar. I don't know why he'd want to make it three wide that early in the race. Pretty dumb move by him. I don't know. That's Bristol. That's the things that happen here."

The question was raised whether the incident may have been a spotter issue.

"Spotters are (for) behind you. I was in front of him," Kahne said. "That's not a spotter problem, that's a driver problem."

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