Conventional wisdom in life and in racing is that continuity is good. Change for the sake of change is bad.

So one would think a NASCAR Sprint Cup team that has just captured four consecutive championships would be content with the status quo, that the team would resist change even if it's in the interest of trying to get better. Seriously, when you've already won four titles in a row -- something no one else has ever done in the history of the sport -- how much better do you have to be? How much better can you even be? And how much are you willing to risk that in changing it up in an effort to improve, you might actually make it worse?

You know the old saying: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Crew chief Chad Knaus has a different motto: if you don't tinker with it, someone's likely to start gaining on you.

Chad Knaus admits he's always pushing for ways to get better.

You know the old saying: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Crew chief Chad Knaus has a different motto: If you don't tinker with it, someone's likely to start gaining on you.

That philosophy -- coupled with the crafty, hard driving of the talented Jimmie Johnson -- explains in a nutshell why the No. 48 Chevrolet team fielded by Hendrick Motorsports has dominated the Sprint Cup Series for four years running. Knaus is never quite satisfied, even after a championship is won. He always thinks his team can get better.

That's bad news for the rest of the Sprint Cup garage. If recent history proves correct, it very well could mean good news for the No. 48 team again this season as it mounts its Drive for No. 5.

Knaus admits that he's always pushing for ways to get better. It is, he insists, the key to the success of his remarkable team. Furthermore, he scoffs at anyone who is fooled into believing the hunger of his team to win championships has diminished in any way after running away with the last four. He even offers the opinion that they are every bit as motivated -- and a whole lot smarter now -- than they were before embarking on their first championship season in 2006.

"We are just as driven, if not more driven, now as we were then. I think that if you look at the way we operate as a team at this juncture vs. how we operated as a team in 2006, we're way stronger," Knaus says. "We're way more educated than we were then. So as a team, we're ready for this year -- but we're not worried about the championship yet. We've got so much left to do before we can begin to worry about another championship.

"I think the thing that keeps us the strongest is that we don't put the cart before the horse. We don't really start thinking about the championship before we race Daytona. What you have to do in this industry is you have to go a couple of races, get your legs up under you, start to build the foundation, see where you're at -- focus on your weak points and then work on those weak points, and ramp up for the end of the season. And that's what we're going to do."

Johnson says it's all about the effort. If the effort is what it should be across the board for the No. 48 team, then he can live with whatever happens.

"If we come up short and we give 100 percent, I truthfully can live with that. If we leave something on the table and fail to give 100 percent, then it's going to sting," Johnson says. "All we can do is our best -- and the last four years, our best has gotten it done."

Say what?

Weak points? Weak points?

You can almost hear folks across the Sprint Cup garage breaking into their best Jim Mora playoff voices, repeating Knaus' surprising mantra. What weak points?

Yet Knaus knows that even the mighty No. 48 team has them. And he is ever vigilant about attempting to eradicate them. Told that there are those who would say there are no obvious weak points when it comes to his team, Knaus responds quickly and emphatically. "They would be mistaken on that. I think there is a lot that we need to work on," he says.

That's just it. Knaus always thinks there is much work to be done.

Team owner Rick Hendrick admits that Knaus was that way from the start when Hendrick installed him as Johnson's crew chief in 2002. Both driver and crew chief were relative unknowns at the time, and Hendrick says now that Knaus made him "a little nervous" by constantly wanting to tweak the makeup of the team or how the cars were being built and fine-tuned.

"He's a gunfighter. He will try things, change things up, and he always makes it work," Hendrick says. "I think it's the commitment that he and Jimmie have, and that belief they have in each other, that has allowed them to accomplish all that they have. But it's amazing for me to watch, really, how [Knaus] identifies things that could be better and then how willing he is to pull the trigger to try to get them better.

"There are a lot of people who would be afraid to pull the trigger if they had all the success he's had. They would be afraid to make the changes. That's how confident he is in what he sees, and what he feels his team needs to keep getting even better."

What Knaus saw as his team approached this season was, primarily, that the pit crew needed to get better. But that was not all.

48 team car chief Ron Malec.

The only true constant with the team, other than Johnson and Knaus, is car chief Ron Malec -- who also has been along for the entire ride since 2002.

"Our pit crew was definitely a weak point last year for a bunch of different reasons -- from performance to injuries to a lot of different angles," Knaus says. "I think the communication between me and Jimmie can continue to improve and get better. I think our engineering staff can stand up and take on more responsibility, and continue to grow, and utilize more of the tools that we have at our fingertips.

"So there is a lot of stuff that we can use to continue to build a better race car -- and I definitely can get a whole lot smarter than I am right now. There are a whole lot of areas that I'm working on personally to try to improve from a performance standpoint and from a teamwork standpoint."

The outside perception may be that one of the keys to the success of the 48 team is that the crew has been together for a long time, but that would be a bit untrue. The only true constant with the team, other than Johnson and Knaus, is car chief Ron Malec -- who also has been along for the entire ride since 2002.

The rest of the guys come and go. Well, they might come and stay part of the 48 team in some capacity back at the shop or on the pit crew, or in a combination of both -- but rarely in the same position for more than a couple of years in a row. And as new recruits are added, they quickly are indoctrinated into the Codes of Knaus.

"Currently the only guy that we've got that has been here for the duration is Ron Malec, our car chief. But here's the difference: you need to go back and look at the tenure of our team," Knaus says. "The majority of the people on the 48 team -- and everybody here at the shop -- I would say the average time served on this team is four to five years. So what that does, as you bring in new people, they're almost absorbed by the group -- because the group that you have is so familiar that they bring that person up and show him the way of the team and how we operate.

"So you really don't skip a beat. It's not like we turn over new people every year. That doesn't happen. There were a bunch of guys that were with me seven or eight years that were replaced last year -- and we didn't miss a beat. And the reason was because the people that were hired midway through, maybe in 2003 or 2004, those people who had been with the team since that point helped groom the new people who came in last year. And it's going to be the same thing this year. We've got a couple of new players this year, and they're going to be able to slide in there and we're not going to miss a beat -- because they're going to be educated and upheld as part of the team. It's the way it grows."

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Jeff Gordon says he is happy for the success Johnson and Knaus have forged and admits he's far from ready to give up on his own title pursuit -- but now it is up to him and his team to take what they've seen Johnson and Knaus do and learn from it.

Spreading the wealth

Hendrick believes that the Knaus principles are beginning to spread throughout his already enormously successful company. Thrilled as he is by the 48 team's astounding success, you get the feeling these days that he wouldn't mind seeing the wealth spread around a little more to some of his other teams.

It's not that Knaus hasn't been willing to share information and ideas. He works out of the same building as crew chief Steve Letarte and the entire No. 24 team, whose car is driven by another four-time champion in Jeff Gordon. There was a time when Gordon was the undeniable top dog at Hendrick, and upstarts Johnson and Knaus benefitted mightily from the sharing of resources and information Gordon's team provided. Heck, it was Gordon who recommended Hendrick hire Johnson, which, in turn, paved the way for Knaus to return to the organization for which he once worked -- as a tire changer on Gordon's championship-winning car.

“

The only thing I can come up is that we are less affected by pressure at the end of the year than other teams. We prepare the cars the same. And with Chad, we may not be the fastest all the time -- but if we're not, we seem to be able to figure out how to get there quicker than most.

”

-- JIMMIE JOHNSON

The two teams retain such synergy now that Knaus often refers to the building they operate out of as "the 2-4-8 shop." And there is no question that he appreciates all that was done in the early going to help him and Johnson get up to speed, and soar beyond.

"I think one of the big influences was when the 48 came on and the 24 shared everything with them seamlessly. That's what changed things," Gordon says. "It may have taken a little bit of an advantage away from us [on the 24 side]. But I think it gave a bigger advantage to Hendrick Motorsports as a whole."

Gordon makes it clear he is happy for the success Johnson and Knaus have forged over their run of championships. He also says he's far from ready to give up on his own dreams of pursuing more titles -- but now it is up to him and his team to take what they've seen Johnson and Knaus do and learn from it, rather than the other way around.

Gordon's last championship came in 2001, the year before Johnson began driving full-time for Hendrick in the Cup series. Since then, Gordon has never won more races in a season than Johnson -- and has finished ahead of him in the points standings only once, in 2002 when he was fourth and Johnson fifth. Johnson has won a total of 47 races to 24 for Gordon since 2002, and during his four-year championship run, prior to last Sunday's 2010 season-opening Daytona 500, Johnson had totaled 29 victories to just nine for Gordon.

"I think if you're confident in what you do and you put the right people in place, your team is still going to prevail," Gordon says. "The information you can get from your teammates can be very valuable to you. But the key is, in order to be successful like the 48 has been, is that you've got to be strong enough where you can stand on your own. Then there are those weekends where you miss, you're off a little bit, and your teammates have what it takes. You have to know how to pull from them and make your car a winning car. That's where they're so strong and where we can get better."

Plus there is the matter of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The current format where 12 drivers qualify for the "playoffs" that determine the season's champion over the final 10 races clearly has favored Johnson. Then again, Knaus and Johnson have embraced the format and relentlessly build toward it each season -- so it is no accident that, as Gordon says, "There is nobody better than the 48 team at those 10 races, those 10 tracks."

Johnson says the way they've been able to dominate down the all-important stretch over the last four seasons mystifies him at times. But then he thinks of Knaus, and knows it is no fluke.

"The only thing I can come up is that we are less affected by pressure at the end of the year than other teams. We prepare the cars the same. Our approach is the same," Johnson says. "And with Chad, we may not be the fastest all the time -- but if we're not, we seem to be able to figure out how to get there quicker than most."

Hendrick insists that this year even more of what the 48 is doing will rub off on his other teams -- which could be more bad news for the rest of the garage, considering that last year Hendrick cars finished one-two-three in points with Mark Martin second behind Johnson and Gordon, despite only one race win, grabbing third.

"The core -- when you've got Ron [Malec] and Chad, and then a lot of guys who have been around but maybe in different positions -- they really believe in what they're doing and they're great at sharing information," Hendrick says. "They've gotten over some of their rough spots. Everybody knows that Chad and Jimmie had a little bit of a deal at the beginning -- and you're always going to have times when crew chiefs and drivers don't agree. But I'll tell you, there is nobody who works more hours than Chad.

"The cool thing about it is you see drivers pick up habits from other drivers. Well, crew chiefs pick up traits from other crew chiefs, and they all kind of just ratchet themselves up. Chad has kind of been the guy who would say, 'I know I just won, but I'm not satisfied. It's got to be better.' And then I see the other guys following suit."

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Chad Knaus says that the team hasn't hired pit crew talent from other teams that much and is more interested in looking for athletes from other environments like football, baseball and wrestling.

What's new

It is six weeks before the Daytona 500 and Knaus is sitting at his desk in the 24-48 shop that is but one monstrous, gleaming building of many in the Hendrick Motorsports complex in Concord, N.C., just minutes away from Charlotte Motor Speedway.

He is trying to look relaxed as he talks of his off-season -- the "week to a week and a half" that he took off to go scuba diving and snowboarding -- as if to prove that, yes, he does have a life outside of racing. But after about 20 minutes, he cannot help himself. He is starting to fidget, to press buttons on his nearby computer. Soon he is checking his watch and glancing through a glass wall that leads to the hallway, like a pitcher in baseball looks to the bullpen when he begins to feel like he's thrown one pitch too many and is starting to tire.

Crew members Mike Atwell and Doug Morgan celebrate a fourth championship after Homestead.

Team chemistry

Few folks even realized it, but Johnson and the 48 team ran down their fourth consecutive championship last season with Knaus trying three different rear tire changers over the last third of the season.

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Knaus wants relief. He is hoping for a wrap-up signal from the public-relations contact who set up the interview, and seems pleased when he gets it. He is one minute closer to being able to get back to work.

But first there is one final question to answer about the changes he has made to the 48 pit crew for this season. He suddenly wants to talk about how the changes came to pass. His eyes brighten as he speaks. The pitcher has found some extra gas in his tank.

"The 09 Nationwide car is our development pit crew. We do allow some of our developmental guys who go over the wall to work with some other teams," Knaus says. "We do that and have been doing that, but we've taken a little bit of a different route. We haven't hired guys that have come from other teams a whole lot. We're trying really hard to hire athletes from other environments -- whether it's a football player, a baseball player, a wrestler. We're trying to train those people -- true blue athletes, guys who really understand what it takes, to teach them how to become tire changers, jack men, tire carriers. So we get a real athlete, people who understand what it's like to be coached, what it's like to train day in and day out.

"If you bring in an athlete, whether you're a wrestler or a football player, into this industry, your life span is doubled compared to what it would be in any other professional sport. So if you find a Double-A baseball player or a college football player that didn't quite make it [in the NFL], they can make a pretty good career here for the rest of their lives."

With that in mind, Knaus added former collegiate baseball player Calvin Teague to the pit crew this year. Teague will replace Mike Knauer as the catch-can guy, with the eye on having Teague eventually serve as a tire changer. Also new to the pit crew this year is Brandon Harder, who will be handing in the second gas can over the wall and also works during the week to develop his skills as a backup tire changer.

Few folks even realized it, but Johnson and the 48 team ran down their fourth consecutive championship last season with Knaus trying three different rear tire changers over the last third of the season -- first out of necessity when Jeremy West suffered a back injury that required surgery following the night race at Bristol on Aug. 22; then again when Knaus grew displeased with the performance of West's first substitute, Rich Macco, and replaced Macco with John Lucas, who had been with Red Bull Racing.

Now they've added Teague and Harder for depth; also brought Lucas back to continue in a backup role for the time being; and have West, now healthy, returning to fill his same pre-injury position as primary rear tire changer. And again, that is not all. They also share backup crew members with the 24 team.

"So we've actually got six, good, seasoned tire changers on staff between the two teams," Knaus says. "That means we've got two spares who can be plugged in at any point in time."

It's like Johnson says: "We were kind of caught off-guard last year a little bit right before the Chase when Jeremy West had a back issue. We didn't have the depth we needed at that point for a tire changer. I know that as a company, it made us recognize how important that depth is.

"Plus we know that if you get two or three 'A' players competing for that job for that weekend, that month or that season, whatever it is, you're going to get the best out of those guys. Just as you see us four [Hendrick] teammates pushing each other, those guys will push each other for those individual jobs. That's kind of the strategy that has changed this year. We just can't be caught in a weak position."

Johnson says his team was fortunate to be able to land Lucas so late last season. He didn't even meet his new tire changer until he reached Victory Lane following the Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway in California last Oct. 11 -- the first race Lucas worked.

"We got lucky in that respect," Johnson says of being able to hire someone of Lucas' caliber with only seven races left in the season. "We don't want to be in a situation where we need luck on our side. We want to be able to control things much better."

Control freaks. That's what they are. And the more they control, the better it is for them and the worse it is for the rest of the Sprint Cup field.

Now it's time for Knaus to go. There are things to do, employees to motivate ... maybe more changes to be made. The team needs to get better. Now and always.

"I think if you ask any one of my guys if I'm difficult to work for, every one of them will tell you yes," Knaus said. "I think if you ask them if I'm a good guy to work with, every one of them also will tell you yes. We expect an awful lot out of our guys -- way more than they ever want to give in their normal comfort zone. But once you get here, your comfort zone starts to expand."

In a strange way they all take comfort, or at least stay motivated, in knowing that Knaus will never let anyone get too comfortable -- no matter how many championships they win.