CONCORD, N.C. -- Chad Knaus acknowledges that his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team with driver Jimmie Johnson has endured "a tough, tough summer," but remains confident that the team can and will again be a contender when this year's NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup arrives.
"It's been horrible; we could have just stayed home," the longtime crew chief said Wednesday at the organization's No. 48 shop. "We've had great performances … Indianapolis we were running really, really well, thought we had a great shot at it. Michigan … Dover we should have won, we had a transmission problem there and crashed.
"We've had a lot of really weird things happen. Some by our own fault, and others by things that happened like last Sunday at Watkins Glen. … But the beauty of it is going into the Chase, those are tracks that we are really comfortable with.
"Chicago? We're great there. Dover (where Johnson has 10 career victories); Loudon, we sat on the pole (in July). Name 'em. Martinsville? We love it. All those races kind of cater to us so we're excited about it."
Johnson and Knaus have won six Sprint Cup championships since the team's debut in 2001, and Knaus called the shots for 75 of Johnson's 77 career victories. Two of those came earlier this year, at Atlanta and Auto Club Speedway, and Johnson sat third in points after the season's first 13 races.
But in the nine races that have followed, there has been just one top 10 and an uncharacteristically-high four DNFs. While he secured one of the 16 spots in this year's Chase field with his third-place finish at Indy, Johnson has fallen seven spots in the points, and currently sits 10th overall.
His two victories this season extended Johnson's streak of multiple-win seasons to 15. But early-season wins aren't unusual for the series' winningest active driver. Thirty-eight of his 77 career wins have come between the months of February and June.
He's been just as successful late in the year, with 31 victories between September and November.
July and August haven't been as kind with just eight career wins during the annual summer stretch.
This year, Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski won back to back at Daytona and Kentucky to kick off July; Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and most recently Denny Hamlin swept three of the last four Sprint Cup Series events. JGR drivers have won 10 of 22 races this season.
"You can't compare yourself to (JGR)," Knaus said. "We don't really look at their performance; we look at ours. That's what we have to do. If we try to focus our efforts outside of what it is we’re doing, we’re just taking away from what it is that we do. So we look internally and try to improve upon what we have and don't worry too much about what everybody else has."
Resistance to change isn't the problem, he said, noting that, "We try things every weekend, everywhere.
"That's just what you do," Knaus continued. "If you don't, you're never going to be competitive. … That's just the nature of our industry.
"What else are you going to do? Are you going to change your driver? No. Are you going to change me? I hope not. We’re not going to change our pit crew, they're solid.
"Our cars (are) always evolving. We're always changing and ever-changing."
The winner of a NASCAR-record five consecutive championships (2006-10), Johnson added a sixth in 2013. However, he's finished 10th and 11th in the two previous seasons, years in which NASCAR officials re-tooled the Chase to include an elimination-style format.
Four races remain before the start of this year's Chase, beginning with the Aug. 20 running of the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR).
From there, it's a return trip to Michigan, on to Darlington and finally Richmond before the green flag falls on this year’s 10-race Chase at Chicago.
Recapturing that early-season momentum has almost become expected from the No. 48 team. That doesn't make it any less difficult.
"You've got to get your feet," Knaus said. "Obviously right now it's pretty darn difficult.
"But the good thing about this group is (while) we have some young players on the team, the core group of guys is pretty solid, have been here for a long time. So they understand what it is that we are going through. They understand the ups and the downs, the ebb and flow of racing.
"So. once we get going it's not going to be that big of a deal I don't think. We throw in a couple of top 10s, then a top five and then I think everything is going to be just fine."