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MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES: O'REILLY AUTO PARTS 500

April 9, 2017

Chad Knaus

Fort Worth, Texas

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the winning crew chief of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet team, Chad Knaus. This is his seventh win at Texas Motor Speedway as crew chief for Jimmie Johnson. A lot of unknowns here coming into the race with the newly repaved and reconfigured track, but you guys still found a way to end up on top. Talk about the team's performance today.
CHAD KNAUS: It was a challenge for sure, obviously coming here with a tire that was unknown to us, and I think Goodyear did an absolutely amazing job picking and determining what tire we needed to bring here. The track surface obviously an unknown, and then just the topography of the track completely new and unique to honestly any racetrack we've got in the series right now.
Coming here we knew that it was going to be a challenge. We didn't have any data from the racetrack. We didn't know how to set up our simulation, so we had to do a lot of it kind of old school. It really worked out well.
Was very impressed with the way the racetrack began to take rubber, very impressed with the way NASCAR and everybody here at Texas Motor Speedway worked throughout the course of the night to get the groove widened out, and the track really got pretty racy there at the end. I think we saw some guys on the outside be able to maintain their position or even take the lead on restarts there towards the middle portion of the race and then to the end. It was a good weekend. It was a lot of fun to be able to come out here and race with this new racetrack.

Q. Talk about his run coming up through the field and getting to the front.
CHAD KNAUS: Yeah, we honestly felt we had a good race car all weekend long. Lowe's Chevrolet came off the truck really pretty good. He was very comfortable with the race car, which was very encouraging throughout the whole weekend. It's unfortunate that we spun out qualifying for sure. I think we would have qualified in the top 12 no problem.
But to come from the back, we knew it was going to be a challenge, but we did have the opportunity yesterday to get into some traffic and then pass some cars or at least follow right behind them, and he was very complimentary of the race car yesterday, so at that point I felt‑‑ I was like, okay, we'll be able to get up there and navigate through the first 15 cars, let's say, and try to get into the top 15. And then it happened in pretty short order. So I was pretty pleased with that.
The thing that changes that people don't understand is once you get yourself up into that top‑10, top‑5 range, the handling characteristics of a race car significantly change, and to be able to tune your car to stay up there, you have to stay up there, and if you fall back in traffic after you've made an adjustment to your race car so it can go faster up front, it can really be a problem and you never get back up front. So we had to kind of tiptoe our way through until we felt like the car was where Jimmie wanted it and the track was really starting to widen out.
But man, I guess we had that pit stop about 180 something‑ish, I don't remember exactly the number right now, and Jimmie was very, very complimentary of the race car. From that point on, it was gangbusters.

Q. I know you pride yourselves on preparation and being able to figure things out, but how much of this today is Jimmie Johnson and his ability to adapt to the unknown and just enjoying being able to drive on a slick racetrack faster than other people?
CHAD KNAUS: I think it's a little bit of both, obviously. Jimmie is obviously amazing. There's no doubt about that. I would never, ever downplay the ability of Jimmie.
But Jimmie couldn't do it without Cliff Daniels and Ron Malec and Julian Peña and all of our engineers and all of our mechanics.
It took an awful lot to get exactly what we wanted underneath the race car. Greg Ives and I and everybody in the 48 and 88 shop, we really dug in pretty deep this week to bring race cars out here where we thought we needed to do when we maybe didn't have the performance that we'd needed the last couple of weeks. I think we brought faster race cars, and when you have a faster race car, it's easier for the driver to drive, and it's more forgiving for him to get himself into a position where he's not maybe as comfortable as what he would normally be. So it was a total team effort.

Q. We kind of laughed about the fact that‑‑ what you had to do to win this race, but that's exactly what happened at Homestead. Is there any sort of maybe subtle mindset that when you guys are pushed farthest back against the wall that you bring a little something extra that obviously others aren't having?
CHAD KNAUS: Yeah, I think there's a little bit of vintage 48 in that. It seems as though we have in times of turmoil and distress managed to get some pretty solid finishes with the 48 car, and I think that's a true testament to Jimmie and his ability to not waver. Like he doesn't get spooked. He doesn't get too crazy. He keeps his calm. He's very calm in nature as we all know. So him doing that and allowing us to work on the race car the way that we need to without panic setting in, I think there's definitely an element to that. We love a challenge. Sometimes we do it to ourselves, but, you know, starting last is not what we wanted to do, but it definitely showed up okay.

Q. I think you used the phrase you had to go at it old school in preparing the car this weekend. How enjoyable is it for you and your guys from the mechanical side of it where you've got to figure it out and figure it out really quick kind of from scratch and then you can give that car to Jimmie where he can be Jimmie at Texas at the end of the race and do what he's done here so many times?
CHAD KNAUS: It's pretty cool, right? I enjoyed it for sure. Some of my engineers didn't enjoy it a heck of a lot because they're numbers guys. They want to know exactly what's going on and how to tune the car. It's challenging for everybody, but honestly, it was a lot of fun for us this weekend.
I love going to new racetracks. I think it's fun. I think it's a challenge for everybody, especially when you throw in things like a different tire and different race strategies and different race cars because these cars are completely different than last year, so there's a lot of unknowns coming in here. I enjoyed it. I had a great time, obviously.

Q. Dale Jr. had said earlier this week that they had felt a little bit off as far as just being a tick behind maybe some of the other teams that they had been losing to. But Chase has been running well. I was just curious, did you feel behind, and if so, how far have you felt behind the other teams this year?
CHAD KNAUS: I think that we have been a bit behind, but not a lot. It's amazing how much a small adjustment can change what it is that you need to do. You know, I can't speak too much on behalf of the 88 completely. I know that we've worked really hard this week, Greg and I did, to get our race cars closer together, better prepared to come to the racetrack, but honestly, if you go back and you look at Atlanta, man, we're one pit road speeding penalty away from running in the top 5. If you go to California, you don't wreck on your third lap, you've got a much better race car than racing in your backup car. Las Vegas, same thing; little bit of bad pit stop, pit road speeding penalty takes you out of the top 5. So I don't think that we're necessarily as far off as what people might say or might have thought, but we did need to improve and we did.
The other thing you have to realize is once we check out and we go out to that West Coast swing, it's very difficult to make improvements on your race car because just, quite frankly, you're not there. We don't get to see them. We don't get to work on them, and we don't get our hands on them. So it's a challenge. So getting back to Charlotte, leading up to Martinsville, and then after Martinsville, gave us an opportunity to work on our race cars and make them better.

Q. Chad, at the end of stage 2, you had a decision whether to try to go for the stage win or get the track position. Obviously it ended up working out for you. It didn't work out for Blaney the same way. How will you guys judge that in the future? Were you happy with your decision at the time?
CHAD KNAUS: I was at the time until we finished second, and then when we were 20th I was mad again. But then when we were about eighth I was okay again. You know, you go through all these emotions. All you can do it make a decision and then adjust to the decision you make. Obviously as soon as we pitted, I felt pretty sure we were going to be about 20th. I knew it wasn't going to play out to our advantage, but I was very confident that our car was going to be able to drive back through traffic.
But as soon as it happens, you get a big pit in your stomach. You know that the race is winding down. You know that people are going to be more difficult to pass. All of those things start to set in, so yeah, I was second‑guessing myself tremendously until we got up closer to the front, and then we were able to make it happen.
All in all, it was a great points day for us. Second‑stage points right there was great, and we really needed that. And I would have loved to have won that stage. It would have been a first for the 48 to win a stage. It would have been fun.

Q. The talk at this track before this race 10 years ago was that there had never been a repeat winner here, and then Jeff Burton went on to win the April race and you and Jimmie went on to win the November race. Now you've won 7 of 20 and 6 of 10. What accounts for that kind of dominance really over the last 10 years?
CHAD KNAUS: Clearly there's a huge portion of that that has to be put on Jimmie's shoulders, obviously. I mean, he's carried it. He's done a great job. He's been adaptive. The cars have changed. The tires have changed. The track surface has changed.
But honestly, I think it's our teammates. We work really hard to go to every racetrack as good as we possibly can to win. The other thing that's unique about this racetrack is it's 500 miles, and I think that that falls into the conditioning of Jimmie. I think it falls into our tempo for the 48 car. We're typically a second‑half team. We like long races. We like‑‑ can't wait to get to the 600 in Charlotte in a couple weeks. We like long races. It's always been our strong suit, so I think that helps.

Q. Jimmie said after the race that he wasn't getting fluids in the car. Was there a malfunction with the system there?
CHAD KNAUS: Yes, sir, there was. To be frank I don't know what that is yet. We've got to look at it and see what's happened there. I don't‑‑ I really don't know. I can't comment on too much because I don't really know what happened. Jimmie felt like it was an isolated situation, but I really don't know a heck of a lot yet. He was hot after the race. He's a pretty tidy, lean, neat guy, and when things get hot, he can get hot pretty quick, but we got him cooled off and he's looking good. He's ready to go have a weekend off like the rest of us.

Q. (No microphone.)
CHAD KNAUS: Yeah. We'll see. We'll have to look at it. Obviously our driver safety and their comfort is very important to us, and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, so we'll get to work on it. We'll get it figured out.

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