It turned into his worst nightmare.

Busch, who entered the race third in the Chase standings, was involved in two wrecks Sunday at Kansas. The second one was potentially catastrophic, possibly ruining his championship hopes.

Busch spun after contact with Juan Pablo Montoya on Lap 187, but suffered no significant damage to his car and returned to the track.

But 13 laps later, Busch made contact with Carl Edwards and Brian Vickers, sending him crashing into the wall and knocking him out of the race.

Busch entered the race third in the Chase standings, just 12 points behind leader Matt Kenseth in what had developed into a three-man race at the top of the standings. But Busch finished 34th at Kansas and fell to fifth in the standings, 35 points behind.

Busch has wrecked in his last three races at Kansas and has never scored a top-five finish on the 1.5-mile track.

With a new tire and a fast, slick track that has given drivers trouble since being repaved last year, several drivers spun and wrecked. Busch barely missed Danica Patrick's wreck on Lap 1 and then collided with Montoya on Lap 187.

Edwards appeared to bump Busch from behind, sending him into Vickers and igniting the crash.

"Apparently, everybody just (decided to) run over the 18 car and get what you need," Busch said.


GORDON, BUSCH HAVE 'DISCUSSION'


Jeff Gordon wasn't happy with one move by Kurt Busch, but beyond that, it was a great day as he gained ground in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

With his third-place finish in the Hollywood Casino 400, Gordon climbed to fourth in the Cup standings, 32 points behind series leader Matt Kenseth.

"It's awesome," said Gordon, who was a late addition to the Chase after NASCAR Chairman Brian France added a 13th spot because of concerns over team orders by other teams. "I'm so proud of this team because I feel like they deserved it."

Gordon and Busch waged a great battle for much of the race, making contact at one point with Gordon skimming the wall. Busch, who started at the rear of the field after wrecking in practice, finished second, a spot ahead of Gordon.

The two drivers talked briefly on pit road after the race. Gordon called it a "civil discussion" and later gave Busch a little hug during their postrace news conference.

"There was a restart where he was on our outside through (turns) 1 and 2, and just didn't quite give us an inch and dumped so much air under the rear of our car where I was on banana peels sliding up onto the exit of 2, and he thought I was trying to pinch him," Busch said.

"I was like, 'Man, I needed an inch instead of you taking that inch.' So I returned the favor by putting my nose close to his rear bumper and took away that inch instead of giving an inch and got back by him. It was a battle. Could it have been cleaner? Yeah."


DANICA CRASHES EARLY


It didn't take long for the treacherous track conditions at Kansas Speedway to claim its first victims.

Danica Patrick lost control of her car and spun on Lap 1, collecting the cars of David Reutimann and Cole Whitt.

Patrick, who started 29th in a pink breast cancer awareness car, had no explanation for the crash.

"I knew that losing grip was not going to be that hard to do," Patrick said. "I said before the race, make sure who is on my door and who is behind me. I knew all that was going to be happening on the start.

"All I can say is, I didn't try to do anything. I just found myself sideways in the middle of the corner and that was it."

Patrick had run well in practice and was hoping for a solid run in what has been a terrible rookie season.

"It's a shame," she said. "This weekend things seemed to be going better and I had a lot of people say, 'You looked good in practice yesterday,' and it did feel better. ... Things just go wrong. ... If I did something wrong, I apologize to everybody on my team. It's a shame."

Patrick entered the race 28th in the Sprint Cup standings and suffered her 16th finish of 29th or worse. It was the fifth time this year that she has crashed out of an event. 	"I'm really sorry. I'm really bummed," she said. "I just was looking forward to having a good day and it's over with within a matter of feet."


KES: WHAT'S 'INTENTIONAL WRECKING'?


Brad Keselowski either wants to know if he can wreck Kyle Busch or Keselowski just wanted Busch to wonder if Keselowski might attempt to wreck him.

While his motive was unclear, Keselowski asked NASCAR officials Sunday to define intentional wrecking during the Sprint Cup prerace drivers meeting at Kansas Speedway.

Keselowski felt Busch wrecked him with a dirty move Saturday during the Nationwide Series race at Kansas. After the crash, Keselowski vowed to pay him back but did not say when.

"At our meeting two weeks ago or three weeks ago or whatever it was at Chicago, we talked about racing 100 percent," Keselowski said to open his question. "One of the things that was distinguished as not racing 100 percent was intentional wrecking.

"I'm curious if you could define that a little further for the drivers so (we) know exactly what that means."

Sprint Cup Series Director David Hoots gave a short answer and soon NASCAR President Mike Helton walked up to the microphone and addressed the drivers:

"It is a fair question. Go back and talk about the expectations of NASCAR and the fans that (the drivers give) 100 percent. We get the fact that changes as the race unfolds. It still is on us to decide when it's aggressive, hard NASCAR-type racing and when that racing may turn out to be something other than that.

"That's a subjective call. But NASCAR-style racing, particularly in the three national series, is expected to be close, aggressive and hard. It is possible to call that line and if that happens, we're going to step in. But it's a subjective line for us to decide when it happens and what's the difference between NASCAR-style racing and something that is intentional."

Contributors: Bob Pockrass, Jeff Owens