Overcoming adversity a staple of resilient 48 team

LAS VEGAS -- He did it last year in Daytona and Las Vegas, winning with his regular crew chief at home watching on television. He did it last year at Indianapolis, winning after a shredded tire punched a hole in his front fender. He did it last year at Homestead, winning his first championship after running over debris and falling back deep in the field.

And Sunday, he did it again.

Johnson wins again

Jimmie Johnson overcame adverse track conditions, a pit-road penalty and a slight brush with the wall to win the UAW-DaimlerChryler 400 at LVMS.

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The uncanny perseverance of Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports' No. 48 team was on display at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for a second consecutive year, when a pit-stop error early in the event knocked him back to 25th place. So he and crew chief Chad Knaus did what they've done so many other times, and overcame adversity to win.

Johnson's outfit has become so accustomed to misfortune that they thrive on it, rallying in situations that would break other teams. On Sunday, a tire got away from the No. 48 crew during a pit stop, and the ensuing penalty forced Johnson to restart at the end of the lead lap. He patiently crept up through the field, stalked the contenders, and then ran away at the end to win by nearly three seconds.

This in the same place where Johnson won last year without Knaus, who at the time was serving a four-race suspension for rules violations prior to the Daytona 500 -- which the No. 48 bunch also won. Comebacks are as much a part of this team as their blue and white firesuits or the Lowe's logo on the hood of their car.

"We're really pretty sick on this team. I don't understand what it is, but we have some issues, and these guys really ramp up when it's go time. I'm proud of these guys for that," Knaus said.

"We had a meeting [Sunday] before the race started, and we just reiterated that the reason we're here is to win races, period. [Team owner Rick] Hendrick doesn't do this for a living, he does this because he wants to win races and win championships. Everybody on our team is exactly the same way. When the chips are down, that's when these guys buckle in the hardest, because they want to try to win the race."

Because of a spate of crashes in a January test session at Las Vegas, NASCAR mandated a smaller fuel cell and a harder left-side tire for the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400. It was a last-minute change for Nextel Cup teams that had tested on the older, softer tire, and it forced teams to adapt on the fly.

As usual, Johnson's team did so as well as anyone else. Knaus told his driver as much early in the race, when Johnson complained over the radio about how difficult the tires were to handle. Knaus' response: "Look bud, we'll do a better job of figuring these tires out than anybody else."

Johnson quieted down, because he believed him.

"When a new rule comes out or we go to a new track, we always smile and think, 'OK, this is a chance for us to really step up and figure something out before other teams do.' We've done that before. I think we were able to do that this weekend," Johnson said.

"With the new tire, nobody had any data to work with, and we couldn't put big computers on the car during the practice sessions. It was really between Chad and I to talk through the issue of the car and the sensations I was having. We do a good job with that. That's one of the strengths of our team, and weekends like this weekend allow that strength to show up."