With Knaus, it's time to stop assuming the worst

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- The list reads like some kind of automotive rap sheet.

• June 26, 2007: Fined $100,000, docked 100 points, and suspended six weeks for illegal front-fender modifications made to the new Cup car for a race at Sonoma, Calif. The front fenders fell outside the template, so he thought they were open to modification. He was wrong.

Barely legal

NASCAR issued warnings to the No. 48 and No. 5 teams for being close to failing post-race inspection. The teams say they weren't trying to cheat.

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• Feb. 13, 2006: Ejected from Daytona 500 activities as a result of illegal rear-window modifications found in post-qualifying inspection. The car's qualifying time was disallowed, and eight days later NASCAR announced a $25,000 fine and a suspension that would ultimately cover four races.

• March 15, 2005: Fined $35,000, suspended for two races, and docked 25 points for a roof height that was found to be too low in inspection following an event at Las Vegas.

• May 27, 2003: Fined $2,500 for unapproved use of refrigerant near the fuel system discovered in inspection prior to qualifying for the Coca-Cola 600.

• Sept. 23, 2002: Fined $5,000 for use of inappropriate language in a televised interview following a race at Dover.

• March 21, 2001: Fined $5,000 and suspended for two races for use of shoulder harness belts that inspectors at Atlanta determined to be out of date. His team at the time vociferously denied the allegations, claiming the dated tag had been cut off with the rest of the excess material.

Those are the kind of incidents that spring immediately to mind when many people think of Chad Knaus, the mechanical mastermind behind Jimmie Johnson's three consecutive championships on NASCAR's premier series, and a crew chief that former Hendrick Motorsports driver Brian Vickers joked has accumulated "more fines than anyone in NASCAR history."

Knaus found himself at the center of the storm again this weekend at Kansas Speedway, when information surfaced that NASCAR had warned the No. 48 team -- and its sibling outfit at Hendrick, the No. 5 -- that they were getting too close to inspection tolerance limits. A variety of NASCAR officials insisted again and again that nothing was illegal, and that this kind of thing happens occasionally as the sanctioning body works to prevent teams from venturing outside of that invisible, technical box that surrounds the current Cup car.

And yet, when Knaus and the No. 48 team are involved, nothing is quite that simple. People know the taciturn crew chief's somewhat checkered history, know his reputation for pushing the rules as far as he can push them, know the number of times he's been invited to the big yellow truck for a chat. The NASCAR garage is a haven for conspiracy theorists, and an issue like this puts them into overdrive. Why, of course the cars were really illegal.

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NASCAR gave the Hendrick teams a pass so three-time champ Johnson or sentimental favorite Mark Martin wouldn't have to incur a massive point penalty with eight races left in the championship hunt. No matter that NASCAR has had no problem doing just that before -- it took 25 points from Martin with two races remaining for a spring coil violation in 2005, when he was trying to chase down Tony Stewart for the title.

Back then, nobody believed Martin was guilty. These days, nobody believes Knaus is innocent. After all, the guy has been penalized seven times by NASCAR (including a $750 fine for window clips determined to be too small at Talladega in 2001), and suspended a total of 12 races going back to his days with Melling Racing, where he got his start as Stacy Compton's crew chief.

And Knaus muddled the waters himself a little on Friday morning, when in his comments to reporters he referred a few times to the cars being "just a little bit off." Hey, give the guy credit for meeting the media and tackling the issue head-on. But doesn't "a little bit off" mean illegal? In this case, according to NASCAR, evidently not. Still, this is the kind of thing the sport's X-Files contingent feasts on.

Nothing about Knaus is black and white. He's all shades of gray, just like the area crew chiefs are supposed to work in. But to assume the worst every time the guy is within sniffing distance of a controversy is more than a little unfair, just like pinning every accident on Kyle Busch because he happens to be on the race track when it occurs.

No question, perception is often interpreted as reality, and the perception in NASCAR is that Knaus cheats. But the reality is that it's been more than two years since he's incurred any type of penalty, dating back to the fender issue at Sonoma in 2007. Now, some of that may stem from the implementation of the current Cup car, which is clearly more difficult to manipulate. But the bottom line is that at least recently, Knaus has managed to successfully walk the line.

"We've worked really hard to clean up the reputation of this 48 team, and we're going to hold that to the highest regard and the highest integrity," Knaus said Friday. "We're not going to go down that path, and we're going to win as many races as we can and as many championships as we can as legal as we can."

Now, being legal doesn't necessarily mean backing off. If Knaus isn't pushing the tolerance limits as far as he can, he's not doing his job anymore than a driver who coasts down pit road at 5 mph under the limit for fear of incurring a speeding penalty. Knaus is smart and aggressive and he's been able to keep his team at the top for so long precisely because he's not afraid of squeezing every rule to its absolute maximum.

Has he gone too far sometimes? No question. But he also works in a position and in a culture where pushing things too far is an implied risk. Ray Evernham did the same thing, better than perhaps anybody before Knaus came along. He got fined and penalized plenty of times, too. But nobody labeled him a cheater.

And yet, that's what some people are whispering this weekend about Knaus, convinced he's the beneficiary of some massive NASCAR-orchestrated cover-up. We're talking about a guy the sanctioning body has hammered again and again and again for infractions, and suddenly he's being treated with kid gloves? That seems difficult to believe. No matter. It's much easier to presume him guilty and paint him the demon, even on those occasions when Chad Knaus hasn't been fined, hasn't been penalized, and hasn't been accused of doing anything wrong.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.