Kahne frustrated by Brickyard crash

Kahne collided with Tony Stewart while battling for a top ten finish, and slammed headfirst into the outside wall.

The impact was severe, but damage went way beyond that of his car, denting Kahne's championship aspirations.

Despite winning four races this season, as many as championship leader Jimmie Johnson, Kahne has not been consistent enough.

After his 35th place finish yesterday, he dropped four spots in the standings to 11th, outside of the Chase placings for the first time since the Daytona 500 in February.

"I was trying to get in a battle with all those guys for position, sixth, seventh, eighth right in there," Kahne said.

"I had to block [Carl] Edwards and come back to Stewart. I was trying to pass Stewart and I got loose.

"Stewart got right down on me and I got loose and then I just tried staying off Tony I guess and ran into the wall.

"It hurt. It still hurts, but that's racing. I can't believe it happened. We battled that car, battled the tyres, battled everything all day trying to get a top 10 and didn't make it back.

"We've been battling. We've been trying hard, but we haven't had the best of breaks in probably the last two months.

"It makes you mad. You want to race good. Going into the race you think you have a shot to win. It takes us all day to figure it out and it's just kind of a pain to race like that. It's the same stuff. I just think everybody else got better."

Hall of Fame Racing's Tony Raines was behind Kahne when he had his accident.

"Kahne and Stewart got together," Raines observed. "Kahne got loose and over corrected, and he hit the wall hard. I just went between him and the wall and whatever fell out of his car was the size of a beer cooler.

"I popped a wheelie like I've never popped a wheelie. I was surprised the car even drove back."