Kasey Kahne rediscovered some of his formidable big-oval speed on Friday as he led the opening practice session of the Pep Boys 500 weekend at the ultra-fast Atlanta Motor Speedway.

One of the cars to beat on Superspeedway's in 2005 and 2006 Kahne and his somewhat beleaguered #9 Gillett-Evernham Motorsports team led the first Nextel Cup Series practice of the weekend with a best average speed of 191.199mph around the super quick 1.54-mile Atlanta oval.

Roush-Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle, another driver who was once guaranteed to be among the contenders for victory at the 1.5-mile ovals just a few short seasons ago, put the #16 Roush-Fenway Racing Ford in second place on the timesheets while current Chase for the Championship leader Jeff Gordon was third.

Behind Gordon came a clutch of title contenders led by Clint Bowyer in fourth place, Gordon's closest rival Jimmie Johnson fifth brothers Kurt and Kyle Busch sixth and seventh before Ganassi Racing's Reed Sorenson broke the Chasers stranglehold with eighth fastest time.

DEI teammates Martin Truex Jr and Dale Earnhardt Jr rounded out the top ten but for the remaining six Chase contenders there was less to smile about with last year's Atlanta winner Tony Stewart 19th, Carl Edwards 24th, Kevin Harvick 27th, Jeff Burton 35th, Denny Hamlin 37th and Matt Kenseth slowest of all in 48th position after an engine failure.