Crew chief Chad Knaus says competition within Hendrick pushes Jimmie Johnson's team

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Not that they necessarily needed a push to improve or added motivation in their pursuit of a fourth consecutive NASCAR Cup championship, but crew chief Chad Knaus says that having so much competition within the Hendrick organization has helped Jimmie Johnson's team become even better.

After all, Knaus and Johnson didn't have to look far to see their chief rivals for the title this season. Once the Chase For The Sprint Cup got under way, all those were housed on the Hendrick complex.

For weeks, the top three battling for the title have been Hendrick teams. Now, with one race remaining, only Johnson and teammate Mark Martin have a shot at the championship. Johnson has a 108-point lead over Martin entering Sunday's season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Teammate Jeff Gordon is third in the standings, but at 169 points back, he'll be eliminated from title contention once Johnson takes the green flag. A driver can only gain 161 points on another in one race.

It's certainly not the first time Johnson has been pushed by his own team. In 2007, he won the title with Gordon finishing second.

Knaus says that those kinds of situations are actually good for him and his Hendrick team.

"I think that with [crew chief] Alan [Gustafson] and Mark running as competitive as they have this year, very similar to when the 24 car [of Gordon] was running as well as what they were a couple years ago, having that internal competition I think has really helped our team and helped our company, actually, to rise to a better level," Knaus said. "I think that's evident with the way that all of our teams are running, especially at this stage in the year. The 88 [of Dale Earnhardt Jr.] is running well, the 5, the 24 and the 48 are all battling each and every week.

"So I think that having the two teams battling for the championship, and then with the 24 car right there on our heels, I think it has raised the production of the whole company up a bunch. So we're real happy with that."

Gustafson, nearing completion of his first season with Martin, seems to agree.

While he's obviously not as close in the points to Johnson's team as he'd like to be, Gustafson seems pleased to have had the chance to compete so well against the three-time defending championship team of Johnson.

After all, no one is more aware of the strength and work ethic of that team than Gustafson and his group. They've witnessed the team’s previous championships and know just what this team is capable of.

They also, though, know the talent and dedication of Martin - and how much of a fight he has put up against the Johnson team.

So Gustafson’s pleased that his team still has an outside chance at the title entering the final race of the year. Martin has never won the championship, though he has finished as runner-up four times.

"Even though the shot is not as good as we want, it's still a privilege to have that opportunity to contend and win a championship and go down there and put as much pressure on Chad, as much as possible, even though it's not as much as we want it to be," Gustafson said. "But go down there and have some fun doing that."

The two carry a tremendous amount of respect for one another's drivers and teams.

As he tries to put a finger on exactly what it is that Johnson's team does better than everyone else, Gustafson can't really define one thing. If he could, he jokes, he'd be working on that himself.

Obviously, there is the talent of Johnson on the track and Knaus off of it. Knaus is the only crew chief to ever win three consecutive Cup titles and is often viewed as one of the hardest-working men in the sport.

That dedication and commitment, as well as that of Johnson, are keys to this championship run.

"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," Gustafson said.

This year, he's had an up-close look at just what the group has been able to accomplish.

And that has impressed him deeply.

Since the Chase began, Johnson has earned four of his seven wins for the season. He has the finish of 38th after a crash at Texas but has posted eight top-10 finishes in the nine Chase races to date, six of them top-fives.

"What they've been able to go do is extremely, extremely, extremely difficult," Gustafson said. "I've given everything I have and my team has and Mark has, and I think we've had a great season. Right now we're falling a little bit short. … I do want to make the point that what they've been able to accomplish over the last four years and what they've done in this Chase is really remarkable.

"I've heard some people bring the Tiger Woods analogy into the equation, and you sit there and you think about that, and that's probably one of the best ways to summarize how good they are and have been able to be over the last four years."

Knaus seems equally impressed with Martin and Gustafson this season, but also with Gustafson over the years. He worked with Kyle Busch at Hendrick from his rookie 2005 season through 2007, making the Chase in 2006 and 2007. This is his first year with Martin, who joined Hendrick in the offseason.

"I think if you look at the tenacity that Alan and his team has had with different drivers, different circumstances, they don't give up," Knaus said. "They have a never‑say‑die attitude. … I think that if you look at the 5 car, they're probably one of the most technically advanced teams that we've got out there. Their engineering staff is second to none. They do a very good job of facilitating tests, looking at seven‑post data, gathering intel and using that information.

"I think Alan is the smartest crew chief out there. I've been saying that for a couple of years now. And I think it's just a matter of time before they get their chance, and it very well could be this year.  We're hoping, obviously from my side of things, that it's the 48 car, but I can promise you, if we have something go down, they're going to be there to pick up the pieces."

Gustafson is aware of that possibility as well.

While he respects and admires Johnson's team and its effort, he is far from conceding this championship. He and his team plan to head to Homestead and fight hard and do everything they can to win the title. And if they don't win it this year, they plan to gear up for another shot, a better shot, at Johnson and Knaus in 2010.

"We're not going to stop," Gustafson said. "… There's going to be another season in 2010, and we're going to gear up as hard as we can, and that's the position we want to be in. Each time you fall a little bit short, you learn, and I think we're getting better, and I think we're going to do whatever we can to reach that point sometime, too."