Johnson and Knaus, NASCAR’s 7-time champions, exit together
AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — There will never be another NASCAR combination like Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus. They built the No. 48 together and dominated the sport for more than a decade.
Johnson and Knaus won a record-tying seven championships, including a stretch of five straight, and Johnson’s 83 Cup victories rank sixth all-time. Although they were split at Hendrick Motorsports in 2018 after an unprecedented 17 seasons, they both retire after Sunday’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
Johnson will run a partial IndyCar schedule next season and find new forms of competition. Knaus is moving into an executive role at Hendrick Motorsports to spend more time with his young family.
“It’s a legacy and you want it to go on and on and it just can’t,” Rick Hendrick said.
Johnson was a little-known California driver who somehow convinced Jeff Gordon to vouch for him with Hendrick. He was popular among the younger drivers but had won next to nothing of national importance at the time. In fact, Johnson was most recognized for a bruising 2000 crash at Watkins Glen in which he climbed from the wreckage and threw his arms in the air in triumph.
Knaus was a highly motivated crew chief developed inside the Hendrick factory under Hall of Famer Ray Evernham on Gordon’s
celebrated “Rainbow Warriors” crew. He briefly left Hendrick for four seasons to continue climbing into his dream job, but Hendrick summoned him back
before the 2001 season to build the No. 48 around Johnson.
Johnson and Knaus were the longest paired driver and crew chief of their generation, sticking together even after bickering between the two nearly led to a 2005 split. Hendrick ordered them to air their grievances over milk and cookies because he believed both were acting like children.
They lasted through the 2018 season, two years after they won the record-tying seventh championship but in the middle of a losing streak that Sunday will stretch three full years. Johnson’s last victory was the 2017 season finale that clinched his final title.
“They were like brothers. In the very beginning, Chad had that drive to push Jimmie. And then Jimmie became a champion and it wasn’t the same relationship,” Hendrick explained.
“Jimmie was like ‘ OK, I’m a seven-time champion. I want to run this team now.
“They had success and they had a friendship. Even though they fought like cats and dogs, they loved each other.”
Each taught the other valuable lessons that worked at the race track and in their personal lives.
Knaus was so hard-wired for so long — he famously dropped his race notes as Johnson crossed the finish line on a championship and rather than celebrate Knaus furiously gathered his strategy sheets — that his personal life took a definitive backseat. He chased winning, exclusively, and only in the last few years has he opened his life to more than racing.