[Editor's note: Carol Fitzgerald continues her look at various personalities within NASCAR, today looking at the man behind the curtain for Jimmie Johnson's 48 team -- crew chief Chad Knaus. --JB]
Where did this Chad Knaus guy come from, anyway?
Turns out he did not in fact spring full-grown from the head of a god.
Chad grew up in racing, which somehow does not come as a big surprise. His father John won seven Late-Model championships at Rockford Speedway in Illinois. And where was young Chad during this time? Oh, he started crew-chiefing for his father when he was 14, and helped him to win those seven championships!
After that he decided he was ready for the big time. He landed his first "real job" with the 24 team of Jeff Gordon, with Ray Evernham as crew chief. Chad started out as a tire-changer, and then went from general fabrication to managing the entire chassis and body construction program during the '95 and '97 championship years. This might be where he got his penchant for fooling around with body configurations.
Chad then went and did a gig as a car chief with DEI, and spent a little time leading the Dodge Development team, before being lured back to HMS in 2002, to crew chief for some young rookie, a kid by the name of Jimmie Johnson.
And the rest, as they say, is history. (See more about Chad's history right here.) Chad and Jimmie formed a darn-near unbeatable combination, and have not finished a a season ranked lower than 5th since. Love them or hate them, you have to admire their ability to win, and keep winning ad nauseam consistently.
Tune in next week for the next episode in this enthralling saga!
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