Motor Sports Weekly News

By: Drew Hierwarter

“If we get four in a row, great, then we have to get five.” – Chad Knaus

 

The current dominance of Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus is nothing new in NASCAR’s top division. All it takes is the perfect combination of driver, crew chief, pit crew, and equipment, that’s all. Nothing to it.

 

Herb Thomas driving Smokey Yunick prepared Hudsons did it in the early fifties. Car owner Carl Kiekhaefer did it in the mid-fifties with drivers Buck Baker and Tim Flock. From 1964 through 1979, Richard Petty won seven championships. In 1967 alone he won 27 races including a string of ten straight.

 

Cale Yarborough also won ten races in 1974 and three straight championships in ’76, ’77, and ’78 driving cars prepared by Junior Johnson. Johnson’s cars also carried Darrell Waltrip to three championships in 1981, ’82, and ’85.

 

The late Dale Earnhardt won seven titles, the first in 1980, the rest in pairs ’86-’87, ’90-’91, and ’93-’94. Then it was Jeff Gordon’s turn as he won four in ’95, ’97, ’98, and 2001.

 

In every one of those strings of success the one thing that stands out is that each of the winning teams had the best combination of people, the best organization, and the determination to work as hard as possible to reach their goal.

 

Today that description fits Hendrick Motorsports in general and the #48 team in particular.

 

The mastermind behind the current domination by the #48, crew chief Chad Knaus, is an admitted workaholic who is totally and completely focused on getting the team to the head table at the end-of-the-year championship banquet.

 

“When I go to the racetrack I don’t go there to play, I don’t go for a picnic. It’s not what it’s about. I’m there to race . . . I go to the racetrack and I worry about the 48 car and then go to my motorcoach and I work and I go to bed and get up in the morning and do the same thing.”

 

You can’t argue with success. Knaus’ analytical approach to the sport has rewritten the way a race team approaches each season. Just like the reward in a race doesn’t come until the last lap, the reward for the season doesn’t come until after the ten-race “Chase for the Championship at the end of year. And every year since the Chase has been instituted Knaus works to make sure his team reaches its peak in time for the Chase.

 

In Chad’s mind there’s little reason to lead the points all year, or any time before it matters. Just ask Tony Stewart. He was on top of the Sprint Cup points for much of the 2009 “regular” season. Once the Chase began and the points were reshuffled his lead was gone and now, with four races, to go, he’s mired in fourth, 192 points behind Johnson.

By contrast, Jimmie Johnson in the #48 just kept logging top five and top ten finishes and hanging around the top of the charts waiting for the Chase to begin. They paced themselves. In the six Chase races run so far, their worst finish has been 9^th at Kansas. They’ve won 3, and have a second and fourth in the other two.

 

In spite of finishing second at Martinsville this past Sunday, Johnson has increased his lead over second place Mark Martin to 118 points. That’s the biggest lead after 6 races in the six year history of the Chase.   

 

Re-read the quote at the top of the page. Don’t doubt for a minute that Chad Knaus means that and knows exactly how to go about accomplishing it. He’s not through by a long shot.

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 8:22 am and is filed under Sprint Cup, Earnhardt, NASCAR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.