Chad Knaus says Indianapolis is just another race for him and his driver. Credit: Autostock

Shop Talk: Chad Knaus

Chad Knaus doesn't dream of kissing the famous bricks on the start/finish line at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

He doesn't look at the 2.5-mile track as a missing link on a resume that includes wins on most of NASCAR's top tracks such as Daytona, Talladega, Darlington and Charlotte.

	Jimmie Johnson has yet to lead a lap at Indianapolis. Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Jimmie Johnson at Indy Year Start Finish Status 2002 37 9 running 2003 9 18 running 2004 9 36 engine 2005 42 38 crash Avg. 24.2 25.2

Sure, the crew chief for Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet would like to win the Brickyard 400 on Sunday. But he's more interested in building momentum for the Chase for the Nextel Cup, which hasn't been the case the past two years.

Johnson finished 38th at Indianapolis a year ago to go from a 66-point lead over Tony Stewart to a 75-point deficit to the eventual champion.

By the time Johnson left Richmond six races later, he was fourth entering the Chase.

Two years ago, Johnson finished 36th at Indy to see his lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon reduced from 232 points to 97. He followed that with consecutive finishes of 40th.

A 36th at Richmond left the team second heading into the Chase.

Knaus hopes to turn the team's fortunes around this week on a track where Johnson has finished no better than ninth in four tries.

Q: How would winning the Brickyard 400 rank with other victories because of the track's history and prestige?

Knaus: To be honest, it doesn't mean a whole lot to me. To me, it's just another race, not that big of a deal. It's a race we need to go and run top five, top 10 just like any other week. I don't hold it any higher than I do Chicago or Darlington or Fontana or any of the others.

Q: So you've never envisioned kissing the bricks?

Knaus: The people that have a history there, like Tony Stewart last year, it's great. To me, it's just bricks. I mean, I've won there before with the 24 car. That's cool.

Chad Knaus has helped Jimmie Johnson finish on the lead lap in all but one race (Bristol). Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Jimmie Johnson's 2006 results Race Start Finish Status Daytona 9 1 running California 3 2 running Las Vegas 3 1 running Atlanta 14 6 running Bristol 5 30 running Martinsville 1 3 running Texas 16 11 running Phoenix 10 7 running Talladega 16 1 running Richmond 5 12 running Darlington 25 4 running Charlotte 3 2 running Dover 42 6 running Pocono 10 10 running Michigan 4 6 running Sonoma 16 10 running Daytona 9 32 running Chicago 5 6 running Loudon 6 9 running Pocono 15 6 running NASCAR MinuteJimmie Johnson hopes to capture that elusive first Cup title Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

Winning at Darlington says more about stock car racing than winning at Indianapolis. A win at the Daytona 500 says more about stock car racing.

If you look back on what our sport was truly built on, it wasn't built on a flat, two-and-a-half-mile quad-oval. When you go to places like Rockingham, Darlington, Bristol, Daytona, places that have long standing relationships in Cup competition, that's when it's cool to win.

Q: So winning at Indy is more media hype than anything else?

Knaus: For me it is.

Q: Your teammate Jeff Gordon has won there four times, including at least once with you as a member of the team. Have you learned anything from that crew that might help you?

Knaus: No more than what we do anywhere else. I know some people build special racecars and go through all the hoops and try to bring all the bells and whistles for that race. They usually end up out-tricking themselves than creating more positives.

We go there with the same mentality we go to every track, and that is to win the race and sit on the pole. No extra emphasis gets put on it.

Q: What challenges does the track offer as far as setups?

Knaus: It's a tough track, I will give it that. You have to respect it. It's very unique. You have to have great horsepower. You've got to have great aerodynamics. You've got to have great down force, great drag, great mechanical grip and a helluva lot of luck.

It's similar to Pocono. Probably Turn 3 at Pocono is the closest thing we've got that would relate to Indy. It's got a short straightaway going into it and a long straightaway afterwards.

But that's really about it. Some people can use a New Hampshire-style setup and be competitive. Some people can use a Richmond-style. But it's kind of its own little element.

Q: So what car will you take there?

Knaus: We might use our Pocono car. If not, we may run the car we ran at Chicagoland a few weeks ago. It's a real good racecar. We don't have any real bad ones.

Q: You are in a similar position heading into Indianapolis as the past two years as far as leading the points. Are you taking a different approach this time?

Knaus: A little bit. I'm a better person than I was a couple of years ago. I'm a little more tolerant, a little more patient. Jimmie's a little more mature. My team is definitely stronger than what it has been. The pit crew is better.

There are a lot of things going in our favor as opposed to things going against us. In the past maybe the pit crew was going downhill just a little, whether it was for injury or somebody had left to kind of maybe start that domino effect.

Maybe our cars were getting a little bit worse. Now I feel our cars are getting better. There are a lot of things pointing us in the direction where we'll be in pretty good shape.

Q: Isn't the tendency supposed to be to improve instead of get worse?

Knaus: What happens sometimes is we've come out of the box with a good package. We lead points, we win races and we get to midseason and ... I don't want to say we get complacent, but maybe some other people were working a little bit harder.

I don't feel like we've been where we've needed to be performance-wise all year even though we've done well. So we've kept on pushing, kept on pushing trying to get our cars better, our team better, our engines better. We're on the brink of having a better product than what we've had the first half of the season.

Q: You've taken different approaches at this point the past couple of years -- experimenting some two years ago and trying to build momentum last year -- and come away with the same results. What will you do differently this year?

Knaus: Up until this point we've done a lot of experimenting. NASCAR has limited us on our tests, so we've taken this opportunity because of the position we're fortunate to be in to go out there on Fridays and do some testing prior to qualifying.

So we've been able to do more experimenting than what we've done in the past, and it's been pretty good.

Q: Are you more relaxed now than you were this time a year ago?

Knaus: I don't think I'm less intense by any stretch of the imagination. Hell no. If anything, I'm more intense. I may be a little wiser in how I direct things. How's that? The intensity is still there. Trust me.

Until we go out there and we have a perfect weekend will I ever think that we've actually completed any type of task. We haven't done that, and we need to do that where you're fastest in practice, fastest in qualifying and then you win the race.

Q: Have you talked with Jimmie about how you look at Indianapolis as just another race? Does he share that feeling?

Knaus: I hope so, because that's all it is. Now, he would love to win there, obviously. He knows the meaning behind it and it's one helluva paycheck. But for me, it's just another race and he knows that.

I promise you, he doesn't dig any deeper for that race than he does any other place.