Johnson and Knaus — a team to be reckoned with

By LARRY CROOM, Daily Sun

Monday, November 23, 2009 12:02 AM EST

Let’s face the facts — Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson is about as exciting as a piece of dry toast. In fact, he’s just like the Sprint Cup Series — boring, predictable and overly corporate-driven. Both of them bring one word to mind — vanilla.

But this morning, you can bet he’s still celebrating his fourth Sprint Cup title. In fact, Johnson made history Sunday night by becoming the first driver to ever win four titles in a row, and only the fourth driver to have four titles to his name. That puts him in exclusive company with Jeff Gordon (four titles), the late Dale Earnhardt (seven titles) and Richard Petty (seven titles).

The story of Johnson and his immense success is an interesting one, to say the least. In 2000, the El Cajon, Calif., native was toiling in the Busch Series, and his sponsor was about to leave. He sought out Gordon for advice, and the two became friends and kept in touch.

Johnson went on to win one Busch Series race in 2001, while Gordon was busy convincing team owner Rick Hendrick to take a chance on Johnson. Gordon even stepped up and became part owner of Johnson’s No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, and as they say, the rest is history!

Johnson’s first full season in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevy was 2002. He started off the season by winning the Daytona 500 pole, and since that time, he has never looked back. Johnson finished fifth in the points standings that first year, then was the runner-up the following two years. He also finished fifth in the standings in 2005 but since the end of the 2006 season, he’s been the reigning Cup champion.

There is no doubt that Johnson is a talented driver. He wouldn’t have won four titles in a row if he weren’t that good behind the wheel. But Johnson is also in the right place at the right time, and he should thank his lucky stars that he met Gordon, works for Hendrick Motorsports and has Chad Knaus as a crew chief.

Gordon is a true winner, and while his protege could easily pass him up in titles, Johnson would be nowhere without Gordon’s backing. Don’t think for one minute that those two aren’t constantly talking and comparing notes. In fact, I’d say Gordon is probably about as proud of Johnson as anyone, since he is the one who truly gave him his shot.

Hendrick, of course, is a master of working with talented and ego-driven drivers. Having Johnson in his stable has proven to be one of his best moves of all times. And making sure drivers are surrounded by the right people and the best equipment is something no one does better than the 60-year-old Hendrick.

All of which brings me to Knaus. Johnson officially will be crowned Sprint Cup champion at the series banquet Dec. 4 in Las Vegas. The first thing he ought to do is break the trophy in half and give it to Knaus, because without him, Johnson would be just another Dale Earnhardt Jr. — a mediocre driver in great equipment who can’t be a winner to save his life.

Knaus learned the crew chief trade under another NASCAR genius — Ray Evernham. In fact, Knaus was a tire changer on Evernham’s original Rainbow Warriors pit crew, when Gordon was winning titles and just about every race he entered. Knaus left Hendrick Motorsports after the 1997 season and held a variety of jobs at various race teams, including a stint as a crew chief at the now-defunct Melling Racing. But when the opportunity to return to Hendrick Motorsports to oversee Johnson’s new team came about, Knaus made the best move of his career.

Knaus is a lot like Evernham — a motivator, a stickler for detail, and most important, a winner. He lives and breathes racing every single minute of every single day, and it shows. His Lowe’s team has finished in the top five of the points race all eight seasons he’s been with Johnson, and his team has competed in every Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup since the format’s 2004 debut.

If you take Knaus out of the equation, I’d venture to say that Johnson might win another title or two, but his success level would definitely drop. It would be no different from Gordon’s level of success since Evernham left his team at the end of the 1999 season with three Cup titles under its belt.

Gordon has won only one title since, and that came in 2001 with an Evernham-picked crew that worked under an Evernham-induced work ethic.

Together, Gordon and Evernham won 47 Cup races and three titles in seven seasons. Without him, Gordon has won 35 races and one title in 10 seasons.

Unfortunately, Johnson represents what stock car racing has become — a corporate-driven sport that demands that its drivers remain noncontroversial at all times. Today’s drivers climb from their cars and immediately start thanking their sponsors instead of cussing the guy who rammed into them five times during the race. If they complain about fellow competitors too much, they’ll find themselves in the NASCAR hauler having an unpleasant conversation with President Mike Helton and Sprint Cup Director John Darby.

Yes, I’m sad to say that today’s NASCAR is here to stay, and Johnson is the epitome of what NASCAR has become. But if the corporate-programmed driver can maintain his desire to compete and avoid serious injuries, he’ll be able to thank the employee-owners of Lowe’s again and again as the years pass.

That is, of course, if he can stay teamed with Knaus and his hard-charging desire to be the best. Johnson is on the right roller coaster, and if he has any sense, he’ll make sure to stay on that track until the day he hangs up his helmet and driving shoes. Otherwise, he’ll become another Gordon, struggling to win titles and thinking about what might have been if he’d been able to keep that winning combination together that got him there in the first place.

Larry D. Croom is the content director for The Villages Media Group. He can be reached at 753-1119 or by e-mail at larry.croom@thevillagesmedia.com.