Jamie McMurray and Kasey Kahne spin at Bristol last Sunday. Credit: Autostock

FORT WORTH, Texas - Kasey Kahne created quite a stir last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway when the normally soft-spoken driver said he was going to pay Jamie McMurray back for spinning him early in the Food City 500.

But Kahne backed off of that harsh statement Thursday, saying the threat was said in the heat of the battle.

"I was upset," Kahne said before Busch Series qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway. "The first interview, there was payback. The second interview, there was payback. By the fourth interview, I was saying, 'Payback's not right.' It's so hot, and you're heated up, I wanted to yell and stuff at the time. There's not going to be any payback, that's for sure."

Kahne was captured on the FOX broadcast with his hands shaking, and many suspected he trembled because he was so angry at McMurray. But that wasn't the case.

"I shake no matter what, especially when I get out of a racecar," Kahne said. "If I wouldn't have grabbed my sunglasses, nobody would've ever known I was shaking. I wasn't shaking because I was mad. I was mad.

"That's just part of my body. I go to the doctor every year, and they don't know why."



Kahne also said that while he still blames McMurray for the wreck, he doesn't consider it intentional.

"I watched it on TV," Kahne said. "You see things differently when you're in the race car. By watching it on TV, he obviously wasn't doing it on purpose. He obviously didn't try to take us out. But I still think that for him to go three-wide that early in the race and then decide to back out ... That's what he did: he backed out, but he still hit me, and I still ended up crashing.

"He obviously wasn't trying to take me out, but he ended up crashing me. That's over with. That's behind us now. It sucks that we lost a lot of points and lost a great racecar."

Kahne finished 40th and dropped from fifth to 11th in the Nextel Cup points standings. Bristol was the second race in a row Kahne was hit from behind and had a good race ruined. At Darlington, Kahne had battled back to challenge the leaders but was bumped by Tony Stewart.

Kahne, who became the said Thursday that he still will race clean but could drive a little harder than normal.

"The last two weeks, I've gotten moved around by veterans," Kahne said. "I think we maybe need to start getting a little more aggressive. This time of the year, we're six races in, and we've shown we can run with these guys and not run into people. I'll keep not running into people, but I might have to get a little more aggressive."

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redriderbob

 

Two wrongs don't make a right.