MORE: Why Johnson will win the title
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team’s summer swoon has come and gone once again and the Hendrick Motorsports driver will attempt to win a record-tying seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship here this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
There were no calls to break up Johnson and Chad Knaus, one of the most successful driver/crew chief combinations in NASCAR, as a winless streak began in April and wasn’t broken until Johnson showed back up in Victory Lane in October.
But there was concern.
“I think it’s the toughest question when you have a relationship,” team owner Rick Hendrick said Friday at Homestead. “It can be in a (car) dealership; it can be in a race team when you have two guys that have been so good and you try to decide ‘Is it time?’
“This year we started off really well and then we hit a lull in the summer and it was — we asked ourselves then, is this time, do we need to make a change?”
The months of July and August aren’t among the team’s most productive, with only eight of Johnson’s 79 career victories coming during those two months. On the other hand, the last three months of the season have seen the No. 48 team roll up 33 victories.
Jimmie Johnson Wins by Month
| Month | Wins |
|---|---|
| February | 5 |
| March | 9 |
| April | 6 |
| May | 10 |
| June | 8 |
| July | 5 |
| August | 3 |
| September | 10 |
| October | 14 |
| November | 9 |
Johnson has had no crew chief other than Knaus, save for a time or two when Knaus has been sidelined for running afoul of NASCAR’s rule.
Knaus kicked around briefly elsewhere before convincing former crew chief Ray Evernham to bring him on board.
They’ve been inseparable since 2002 and nearly unbeatable for much of that time.
Not that there haven’t been potholes along the way. In 2005, before Johnson won the first of his six championships, the team owner came as close as possible to severing the union before sitting the pair down and suggesting they stop bickering and start communicating.
It was a lesson that served them well. Johnson, Knaus and the No. 48 team won the next five Sprint Cup championships. They added a sixth in 2013 and here they sit in Homestead, on the doorstep of No. 7.
“When you see things that are so close, I think that’s when they work harder, and we really just sit down and work hard together and try to identify weaknesses,” Hendrick said. “I think they have both made a commitment; they want to retire together. They want to finish their careers together.
“I think their relationship right now, even I think this summer was the biggest test we’ve had when we just weren’t running after winning a couple races and struggling, but they did not lose focus, and it wasn’t one of those situations where … yeah, we talked it out, but it was not a time when we were going to say let’s just try something different.”