CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There were many times following Jimmie Johnson’s 83 career NASCAR wins when, trophy in hand and post-race obligations complete, his pending celebration would be instantly soured by the man who guided him to victory lane.
Chad Knaus wanted to extract the most out of Johnson all the time, and even after a win, the crew chief could still find areas of improvement.
“There were many times when we were in the media center, collecting the trophy, and we leave there and as soon as the door was shut, Chad is like ‘Hey man, that second stint? What happened on that restart? What about this? We gotta tighten it up!’” Johnson told The Associated Press. “And I’d be like ”Give me until tomorrow, OK? We’re leaving with the trophy. Tomorrow you can give me (crap), right now? Don’t.”
The push and pull between driver and crew chief worked for a record-tying seven Cup championships including an unprecedented five consecutive titles. Johnson drove the Knaus-built No. 48 Chevrolet to two Daytona 500 victories, four w ins at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, six at Johnson’s home track in California, seven at Texas, eight at Charlotte, nine at Martinsville and 11 at Dover.
They were an unstoppable duo and will fittingly be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame together on Friday night. Both are first ballot inductees and will be celebrated with Donnie Allison, an original member of the “Alabama Gang,” who is joining his brother, Bobby, in the Hall.
Allison, winner of 10 career Cup races, was voted in on the Pioneer ballot. Janet Guthrie, the first woman to race in both the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500, is being inducted as the Landmark Award winner for contributions to NASCAR.
Allison and Knaus last October spent time at Charlotte Motor Speedway reminiscing about their careers. Knaus is now the vice president of competition for Hendrick Motorsports, where he and Johnson teamed for 81 of Johnson’s 83 victories; Knaus was suspended for two of Johnson’s wins, including a Daytona 500 victory.
Although Knaus has mellowed in his new role — married with two young children — he denied himself much of a personal life at the height of the 48 team’s success. One of the memories he shared sitting alongside Allison was a 2009 weekend of total domination by Johnson at Charlotte.
“One of the things that we always strove for was to be fastest in all the practice sessions, fastest in qualifying, and then to go win the race. That would be a perfect weekend,” Knaus said. “And we did it. I kept all those time sheets from that weekend, which was really cool. Just had the No. 48 on top of every single NASCAR print off sheet, which was really special.”
That’s how Knaus was wired and it worked with Johnson, a laid-back Californian from a blue-collar family who scrapped his way to North Carolina and eventually a seat driving for Rick Hendrick in the Cup Series. Johnson landed the job by sitting down next to Jeff Gordon at a driver meeting and selling himself to the four-time champion, who convinced Hendrick to hire Johnson ahead of the 2002 season.