Johnson, Knaus ready for HBO series '24/7' debut (cont'd)

Knaus said he came around to the idea pretty quickly after discussing it with Johnson and others.

"Immediately I said no. I was like, 'There's no way. We've got way too much sensitive information [involved] in the things that we do,' " Knaus admitted. "But when you sit back and you look at it, we talked about it and I think it's good for the company, I think it's good for Jimmie, I think it's good for our teammates. I think it's great for everybody involved and obviously for our sponsors.

"I also think it's great for attracting a new group of fans that might not typically be watching motorsports, people that focus maybe more on movies and things like that. Once I began to think about it like that, I was very quickly persuaded to go for it."

Knaus also laid down a few ground rules.

No human-interest angle will be overlooked. Johnson noted that HBO has filmed plenty of footage of his wife as she has contended with some of the challenges related to the pregnancy.

"We're not cutting anything out and saying, 'You can't shoot this.' But we've done a very good job of making sure that they shoot sensitive material from 20,000 feet -- as opposed to looking right into our engine compartment and seeing what our geometry is and what our chassis looks like," Knaus said. "They do a real good job of showing what's going on and giving people a good feeling of what we're doing -- without showing exactly what gears we're putting in the car and what suspension settings we're using, things of that nature."

The first episode will deal mostly with what goes on at the Hendrick Motorsports shop in terms of getting ready for the season-opening race. But it also will include footage from a test at Rockingham Speedway "when it was about 12 degrees," according to Knaus.

"I think what they've filmed so far is going to show sort of how we lay the foundation, where we put out there what we're doing here at the shop," Knaus said. "What's going to be cool as we get to the race track [in Daytona] is viewers are going to be able to see how we go about making the decisions that we do."

No human-interest angle will be overlooked, either. Johnson and his wife Chandra recently announced they are expected their first child in July. The driver noted that HBO has filmed plenty of footage of his wife as she has contended with some of the challenges related to the pregnancy.

"That will all be part of the show. They are with us at different times on different days, and Channie has had a tough go of it with morning sickness. You'll see her numerous times when she's just beat up. She has more good days than bad now, which is good, but we're making ourselves available and open," said Johnson, who added that he has been getting up most days at 5 a.m. to fix his lovely bride oatmeal, one of the few staples she has been able to handle at the breakfast table [of course then he goes back to bed].

The first episode was still being edited as of late last week and Johnson admitted he was getting antsy to see the finished product.

"What's weird is that I haven't seen anything," Johnson said. "They've collected reels and reels of footage, and that's starting to drive me a little crazy. All I keep hearing is wait until you see the first episode, because they're editing it now. I'm anxious to see it.

"They have so many more visual aids than when they do a boxing show. Boxers run, they train, they're sparring. That's all they have to show. There is so much more to show here. Their reaction to how cool it's going to be is neat to see -- but we can't see it just yet. We're all like, 'Damn, we want to see this!' "

Knaus said he thinks fans will enjoy seeing different sides of not him and Johnson, but also members of the 48 shop team and pit crew.

"It's difficult to be yourself, to a degree, when you know the camera is rolling. But I think we've done a pretty good job of it," Knaus said. "When you look at how I act, how Jimmie acts and how everybody on the crew interacts with everybody else, I think you're getting it pretty straight up. I mean, they got me in my pajamas getting up out of bed. I think that's about as real as it can get."