Kansas City, Kan. ? In less than 24 hours, Jimmie Johnson went from starting at the front of today’s LifeLock 400 to starting in last after an accident in the final practice Saturday.

Johnson, who had won his second straight pole, slid into the wall during his sixth lap of Happy Hour and did enough damage that he had to switch to his back-up car.

“I just lost it getting into Turn 3. The car was kind of loose,” Johnson said. “I thought it was coming to me, and so I started opening up my entry into the corners, and it just got out from underneath me getting into Turn 3. We definitely didn’t need that. The car we’ve got is the car we won California with.

“I’ll have to start in the back, but this track is wide and good. And we can race anywhere. I really don’t have any big concerns besides getting run over behind us right now with the backup car. We didn’t need this.”

Doug Duchardt, vice president of development for Hendrick Motorsports, said sticking with the damaged car wasn’t worth the risk with Johnson – currently in third place in the Chase for the Nextel Cup – just four points behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon.

“The damage to the No. 48 Lowe’s Monte Carlo SS is more significant than it may look from a cosmetic standpoint,” Duchardt said. “The entire left side of the car is caved in, so basically it is wrecked. We asked NASCAR, and they said we could pull out the backup car. Aero here at Kansas is very important, and given the option to use a backup car that we know is 100 percent, even to start in the back, is the best option in the Chase.”

After Ryan Newman’s second-place qualifying time was disallowed due to a low roof, Scott Riggs will move from his initial fourth-place spot to leading the inside row.

“I’m confused how I qualified fourth (Friday) and I’m starting from the inside of the front row,” Riggs said. “Really, I hate it. I hate it for Jimmie and those guys. Those guys are going for a championship. They’ve been on their game, did all the right things and sit on the pole, and now they’ve got to start in the rear, but I’d bet you money that they’ll be walking their way to the front pretty quick.

“We just want to get out there and have a good day. We want to have a good solid day. We’re not out there trying to take any guys out or push any guys out of the way. We just want to have a good, solid competitive run tomorrow.”