Kahne upset with Kyle Busch following wreck

Kasey Kahne

It was tough to tell whether Kyle Busch had nudged Kasey Kahne in their late-race battle for the lead last night at Darlington Raceway, causing Kahne to slap the wall and end his chances for a Bojangles’ Southern 500 win.

Nonetheless, the Hendrick Motorsports driver was angry with Busch, who he also holds responsible for wrecks that ruined his races at the season-opening Daytona 500 and last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

Kahne was on the outside of Busch as the two raced side-by-side into Turn 1 on Lap 333, when Busch’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota suddenly began to slide up the track. The right-rear corner of Kahne’s No. 5 Chevrolet then brushed the wall before the whole car hit it broadside.

“Well, he needs to quit…I mean, he’s got to just race me," said Kahne, who wound up 17th. “I mean, I’ve never touched the guy in my life as far as on the race track. Three times this year, there have been other times in other years. I don’t really know what his deal is with me. He blew that entry into [Turn) 1. I got to the outside. I got by him into [Turn) 3. We had a great restart [on Lap 332]. We kept getting our car better. The guys did an awesome job. Then he just blew his entry into [Turn] 1.

“Whether he touched me…I mean, it was very close, whatever it was. The angle he took into the corner, he had no steer and just went straight. Then I went spinning. It was definitely a tough way to end our race. We had just got to the point where I could move off the bottom. I could move up higher because we had been so loose and I felt really good."

Busch, who faded back to sixth thanks to a slowly deflating right-rear tire, made no comments after the race. Crew chief Dave Rogers maintained that his driver was equally disgusted about his involvement in the incident.

“This is the third time we’ve been involved in an incident with Kasey," Rogers said according to USA Today’s Jeff Gluck. “All of us over here have a ton of respect for that program and Kyle thinks the world of Kasey Kahne…He was really somber and disappointed it happened. Unfortunately, it’s part of this sport." NBC Sports