Crew chief Chad Knaus' rapport with Jimmie Johnson runs deep

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Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Chad Knaus may be a perfect balancing agent for driver Jimmie Johnson.

Knaus appears to be the fierier of the two, but when it comes to races, he knows how to offset the emotions of his driver at any given point. He's the only full-time crew chief that Johnson has ever had in NASCAR’s Cup series since his debut in 2001, and the two have certainly learned how to deal well with each other.

They seem to be not only a championship-winning combination, but also a good personality mix.

"Jimmie is, obviously, typically very mellow, which counters my aggressiveness, I guess you would say, very well," Knaus says. "So when he starts to get upset and we get in the race car and we get in the race, I try very hard to maintain a level head and a calm mentality, and I think that that helps with Jimmie. When he starts to get excited, I know that I need to try to interact a little bit and try to calm things down. But most of the time he typically doesn't get too anxious."

"We've been able to balance each other out over the years," Johnson says.

It's hard to imagine the level of pressure the two have faced through their four consecutive Cup championship runs, buy they seem to just continue to improve.

In 291 Cup starts together, they have amassed 47 victories. They have 180 top-10 finishes, 117 of them top-fives. They also have 23 pole positions. And, of course, the unprecedented four consecutive titles.

While Johnson's driving talent has been widely touted, Knaus has functioned more in the shadows. That doesn’t mean he fails to get credit, at least within his organization, for his own level of expertise and performance.

But in many ways, it may all come down to the melding of personalities.

Johnson says that he and his future crew chief connected from the start.

In their initial meeting, they didn't know that much about one another. Johnson had been trying to make a name for himself in NASCAR after running in the American Speed Association and motorcylce racing. Knaus had been working as a crew chief for Melling Racing.

Hendrick officials Brian Whitesell and Ken Howes set up meetings with Johnson and a trio of crew chiefs they were all interested in pairing with Johnson.

They sat down for lunch meetings - and time just flew with Knaus.

"We sat down, started talking, and before we knew it, we got off on our own little side topic about motorcycles and other forms of racing, the Midwest and where he was from," Johnson says. "And I had spent some time up in that area with ASA stuff. Before we knew it, a good amount of time had passed, an hour and a half, two hours, and Ken and Brian both were like, 'Hey, guys, this is going well, but we need to get back to the shop, and I'm sure Chad has got to get back to work.'

"When we left there, it was amazing how much time had passed and how well we connected. I don't think we knew much about each other before that, but we felt like there was a bond there and something we wanted to build on. It was an easy decision then because of the connection we had and the conversation we had just at lunch."

Knaus agreed that the meeting showed just how well they could work in tandem.

He says that he didn't know that much about Johnson at that meeting. After all, he was caught up with the daily matter of racing in the Cup series. He had not really spent a lot of time looking at incoming talent.

"When you're in the Cup series and you really get engulfed in what it is you're trying to do, it's difficult to pay attention to the Nationwide Series because the races are going on while you're racing or while you're working on your cars and stuff, and you don't get to see a whole lot of them, so I didn't watch a lot of what was in the Busch Series that much and didn't really know Jimmie at all," Knaus says. "I had known that he had won Chicago because that was my hometown, and it kind of stuck with me for some reason or another.”

At that time, they didn't know much of anything else about one another.

As Knaus says, he didn't know if Johnson "could drive at all" and that the driver didn't know what his situation was.

They both thought, though, that this might be their chance.

"It's something we both kind of discussed early on and said, ‘This is our shot,’" Knaus says. "You get kind of one opportunity in life to make things happen, and this was our opportunity, and we both dove in headfirst and believed in one another, and here we are."

Here they are indeed. Working with team owner Rick Hendrick, they've built the kind of dynasty team that others dream about, that drivers and crew chiefs hope to have the chance to be a part of at some point in their careers.

Whether it has been or not, Knaus and Johnson have made it look easy.

Even those who work closely with them marvel at their accomplishment.

"I can tell you that they work as hard or harder than anybody else in the series consistently, and they're both at the pinnacle of the sport, both Chad and Jimmie, and they have assembled a great team and do a great job keeping a great team even when they have some rollover, which in professional sports is inevitable, they can fill the voids really well," says fellow Hendrick crew chief Alan Gustafson.

Knaus is constantly asked what he wants out of the future, if he plans to leave his crew-chief role and go for others in the sport. He simply says he doesn't know that he'd like to compete against Hendrick, though he doesn't seem to be intent on staying in a crew chief role forever.

Hendrick says that he's not sure what the long-term future holds for Knaus, though he believes he wants to stay at Hendrick and they are talking about a contract, but that right now Knaus seems happy in his role as crew chief for Johnson. With four consecutive championships to his credit, Knaus has joined Johnson in the record books; he's the only crew chief to ever win four consecutive titles.

While Hendrick says they are working on a contract extension, as of the championship week, that had yet to be settled.

Hendrick seems to marvel at the level of intensity that Knaus brings to his job, the focus he adds to the organization.

"He enjoys the box," Hendrick says. "He enjoys being the field general. He likes working with Jimmie. They are writing the record books. And he's always looking at what is the next rung on the ladder that we have to accomplish to be, you know, one of the best of all time.

"So I think Chad really would be bored doing anything else, and he spends about 20 hours a day, seven days a week planning for the future. He was talking to me by text Sunday night [of the final race], because I was in the hospital. He was already talking about 2010 and some things he wanted to do. Which I thought, 'Man, you ought to go celebrate this one.' But it amazed me how the guys are right back in here Monday morning, digging again, getting ready for next year."

As for Knaus himself, he admits that he still feeds on the competition. That's clear in the fact that he has his four titles - and that he has already started looking at 2010. There's little chance the competition will catch him sleeping at the wheel, which could make it all that more difficult to catch him.

For his part, he plans to take it one step at a time - the way he has the last four seasons.

"I'm excited about next year," he says. "I think when you get on a wave like this and you get the momentum behind you, you don't want to stop. I think you get excited and you want to continue it on, and it's easy to feed off of that fire once it starts to develop. You know, but the thing is, this sport is so, so difficult. It's a grueling, non-forgiving sport; it really is. If we went out there next week, let's say, if we started racing again next week and we finished 20th, you know what, that's it. You'd better get to work if you want to beat them. There's no concessions. Nobody is going to give you anything in this industry.

"If we go out next year and we run competitive, that's what we want to. If we can get ourselves in position to make the Chase [For The Sprint Cup], that's what we want to do. Once we make the Chase, then we'll worry about trying to win the championship. But to say that our sights are set any further than qualifying for the Daytona 500 next year, they're not. That's our first goal."