As Jimmie Johnson struggled through the longest winless drought of his Sprint Cup career, team owner Rick Hendrick wondered whether it was time to split up the band.
Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus have won six Sprint Cup titles together, and Knaus has overseen the cars for Johnson’s 79 victories. But after 15 seasons together, Hendrick at least wondered a little bit whether they needed a change as Johnson went on a 24-race winless streak with 11 finishes outside the top 15.
He didn’t act on those thoughts, and Johnson is one of the four drivers vying for the Cup title Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“When you have two guys that have been so good and you try to decide is it time, and this year we started off really well, and then we hit a lull in the summer, and it was — we asked ourselves then, ‘Is this time, do we need to make a change?'” Hendrick said Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“But when you see things that are so close [to turning around], I think that’s when they work harder. We really just sit down and work hard together and try to identify weaknesses, and I think they have both made a commitment — they want to retire together. They want to finish their careers together.”
As Jimmie Johnson struggled through the longest winless drought of his Sprint Cup career, team owner Rick Hendrick wondered whether it was time to split up the band.
Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus have won six Sprint Cup titles together, and Knaus has overseen the cars for Johnson’s 79 victories. But after 15 seasons together, Hendrick at least wondered a little bit whether they needed a change as Johnson went on a 24-race winless streak with 11 finishes outside the top 15.
He didn’t act on those thoughts, and Johnson is one of the four drivers vying for the Cup title Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“When you have two guys that have been so good and you try to decide is it time, and this year we started off really well, and then we hit a lull in the summer, and it was — we asked ourselves then, ‘Is this time, do we need to make a change?'” Hendrick said Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“But when you see things that are so close [to turning around], I think that’s when they work harder. We really just sit down and work hard together and try to identify weaknesses, and I think they have both made a commitment — they want to retire together. They want to finish their careers together.”
“They’re not sharing a lot of stuff,” Gibbs said. “It’s going to be up to them individually, and I think both of our guys … it’s such a big deal for them. We kind of felt like obviously they’re going to be kind of individually going for it. … They’ll both kind of be on their own here.”
Busch and Edwards dismissed the notion they aren’t working together after they posted the top speeds among the Chase finalists in qualifying.
“Joe is not in our meetings,” Busch said about the work among the four JGR teams as well as affiliate Furniture Row Racing. “Don’t listen to Joe. We’re not sharing with him.
“Everything right now is all the same — open notebook. I’ve been looking at Carl’s stuff all day. Carl has probably been looking at [notes from] everybody else as well as I have.”
Sunday evening will tell the tale. If Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knauss prevail for their seventh Sprint Cup championship for HMS, then Mr. Hendrick can sit back, smile, and celebrate with this phenomenal combination of driven individuals!
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
