Crew Chief Corner: Rockingham

What a way to enter Rockingham following a third-place finish in the Daytona 500. I thought for a couple of minutes that we were going to pull one out and be in the lead when the rain came, but things didn't go our way in the weather department.

The Dale Eanrhardt Inc. cars always run well on restrictor-plate tracks, and we knew that we were going to have to beat the best to be the best. We didn't get the breaks we needed Sunday afternoon.

The guys did a great job preparing the Lowe's Chevy for all of the races during SpeedWeeks. Jimmie Johnson was fantastic learning the draft with a new body style, and by the end of our 11 days in Daytona, I felt we were one of the best teams there with one of the best drivers. While walking away from Daytona with a third-place finish is great, I'm looking forward to coming back in July.

Right now, I'm looking forward to going to Rockingham this weekend. This is when the season really starts for most teams. Daytona is like a season in and of itself. Now we get to the intermediate tracks where most of the Winston Cup competition takes place.

	Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have not had much luck at Rockingham. Credit: Autostock

Looking back at our 2002 stats, Rockingham was statistically our worst track. We finished 28th in the first race last season and 37th in the second race. So, why in the world am I looking forward to racing there? Well, there are a couple of reasons.

One, Jimmie loves racing at Rockingham, and the track fits his driving style really well. The Rock is just a little more than a mile long, and the banking in the corners is between 22 and 25 degrees with the frontstretch banked at eight degrees. Dover -- a place where we won twice last season -- is similar in length and banking. The two tracks are not identical, especially since Dover is concrete and Rockingham is asphalt, but they do require the driver to get up on the wheel and drive.

The second reason I'm excited about going back to Rockingham is that adversity affected our outcomes in both races last season. In the first race, our front tire carrier was hit on pit road during an early stop. Thankfully, he is fine now, but as a result of the collision, we had a 27-second stop that caused us to lose key track position that we couldn't make up.

During the second race, we had a loose rear tire that caused damage to one of the rear hubs. We were forced to go behind the wall to repair it, and we lost a lot of laps. In each race we had strong runs going, but things didn't work out. So I'm excited to get back there and prove Rockingham is a place where we can run well.

One of the key factors at Rockingham is that it is one of the hardest tracks on the tires. The sand they used to create the asphalt there contains a lot of seashells. This is a place where you would carry your tires around if you could because just rolling them around starts to wear them down.

The keys to success at North Carolina Speedway:

1. Handling.

Jimmie is going to need a racecar that handles well. If the car is loose or tight, it will wear out the tires that much faster, which translates into a long day for the driver if he has to battle the car for 400 miles.

2. Pit crew.

Because the track is so hard on tires, every time a caution comes out or on almost every pit stop, we will be taking four tires. The pit crew must be on their game. We don't need the fastest stops in the garage, we need the most consistent stops and not lose track position on pit road.

3. Driver.

Rockingham is a tough track where the driver needs to be up on the wheel and know what is going on around him. Jimmie is going to have to drive smooth and take care of the car. If he abuses the car or overdrives it, he will lose the tires faster and the car won't be there at the end of the race when we need it.

Chad Knaus is the crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Hendrick Motorsports. His column will appear weekly on SI.com.