By Chad Knaus

The first time I met Jimmie Johnson was in Homestead, Florida when I was at Melling Racing. I was sitting on pit road. He was getting ready to start the Xfinity race. Rumors were swirling about him getting the opportunity to go to Hendrick Motorsports. The guy I was talking to called Jimmie over and said, "Hey, I want you to meet Chad. This is the guy that you need to be your crew chief next year when you go to Hendrick Motorsports."

We shook hands and kind of laughed. But shortly afterwards, I got a call from Hendrick Motorsports, and we ended up working together for the next 17 seasons.

People ask me what kind of guy Jimmie was then. He was a legitimate West Coast guy — go with the flow. He's very genuine, really cares about people, enjoys helping people. That's obvious. But I don't know that it really became obvious to other people, until later in his career, how much dedication he had to his craft.

I always saw it through his commitment to me and what we pushed for from a preparation standpoint. There's nobody that outworked us on the 48 car. Ever. If we were not racing at a racetrack, we were testing at a racetrack. If we were not testing at a racetrack, we were poring over data. We were always doing something with the team to try to improve our product, and Jimmie was right there the whole time, including his dedication to fitness. He saw that he could have a significant impact on the performance of the car through his conditioning, and what he did off of the racetrack really started to show up.

I probably didn't fully appreciate what we had until after our seventh championship. Quite honestly, because you're in it so much, it wasn't about being the greatest. It was about doing what we needed to do every year. And we fell short of our goal. We had always said from the beginning that we wanted to win eight championships, and we unfortunately didn't get there. But quite honestly, I knew really early on that he was a very talented guy. 

His ability to break down what was happening on the racetrack is really, really extreme. His situational awareness was amazing. He could see that the groove was moving or start to investigate the groove moving before anybody else because he could feel it. And that's just really special. I've always said that Jimmie Johnson had the best racecraft of any driver I'd ever seen.

He could pass the car in front of him better than anybody. His ability to maneuver, to see and understand the racetrack as it changes, manipulate a guy in front of him to be able to get past him or have that guy make a mistake, was second to none. Nobody else out there did it at that level, for that long. 

To me, Jimmie’s more than a great racecar driver. He’s one of the best athletes of the 2000s, in any sport, whether it’s football, baseball, basketball. Michael Jordan, Aaron Rodgers, LeBron James — make the list however you want. Jimmie Johnson is at that same level.

Beginning in 2002, MSHFA nominee Chad Knaus was Johnson’s crew chief for 17 seasons, during which they won a record-tying seven NASCAR Cup Series titles, including an unprecedented five in a row. It cemented Knaus’ reputation as one of the all-time great crew chiefs.

MSHFA 2012 Inductee Ricky Johnson (R) with Jimmie Johnson.

(Brian Cleary/bcpix.com)