JOLIET, Ill. — Jimmie Johnson said he owes Chad Knaus one.

After winning at his home track of Auto Club Speedway, Johnson said he promised his crew chief that he would return the favor at Knaus’ home track of Chicagoland Speedway.

The pair have been close — as close as a runner-up finish — at the 1.5-mile venue. But in the pair’s 81 wins together over a 19-year period, Chicagoland remains one of three active tracks where the Johnson-Knaus duo has never captured the checkered flag with the No. 48 Chevrolet.

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“Boy, we’ve had a lot of races where we’ve come down to the last pit stop or the last handful of laps, leading a lot of laps,” Knaus told NASCAR.com at the Hendrick Motorsports shop in Concord, North Carolina. “It’s unfortunate we’ve come so close. Quite honestly, I bet there’s been over the years maybe seven races where we should have won there, but just haven’t been able to put it together …

“To be able to get a victory there would be nice and definitely long-waited.”

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“He’s put me in position a couple times and I’ve squandered it away,” Johnson said of his crew chief with a smile. “So, I owe him. Really, really hopeful to get it done. It is a fun mile-and-a-half race track. I really enjoy going there, I love the area and it would be awesome to win that for Chad.”

Knaus’ hometown of Rockford, Illinois, is less than 150 miles from the speedway. It’s where the 46-year-old got his start in racing, tapping into the local scene with his father, John Knaus. And it was at nearby Rockford Speedway where Knaus developed his well-known dogged determination, the drive that has helped eventually lead the No. 48 team to record-tying seven championships.

“The racing in the Midwest is extremely good from a Late Model standpoint or Modifieds, whether it be asphalt or dirt,” Knaus said. “I grew up and started my racing career at Rockford Speedway. My father won the championship there, I think seven times in total. A bunch of races and we were very successful.

“I think racing there with my father in that community was a huge benefit because it taught me the tenacity that you need to be able to go out there week in and week out to be able to be successful over a long period of time as opposed to just individual weekends. A lot of people in the racing community, what they do is they go and just run special events or they hit the big hitters. But a lot of the guys in the Midwest, because the racing season is so small, you have to do a lot of races back-to-back and that definitely helped me in the Cup Series.”

That tenacity has been tested this season for Johnson-Knaus, as the pair continue to search for their first win nearing the halfway point. With differing personalities and equally competitive natures the pair have seen their ups and downs in their nearly two decades together. Many like to bring up the infamous “milk and cookies” conversation that team owner Rick Hendrick orchestrated in 2005 when the duo’s relationship was fraying.

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Today, both Johnson and Knaus credit their strong personal relationship and success as what’s held them together for so long.

“Jimmie and I are just like family,” Knaus said. “I think the way that I can read him and understand his emotion, understand what it is that he wants in the race car and vice versa; the way he understands my emotions and what it is that I’m trying to describe to him to get out of the car. I think that that’s invaluable, really unique to the industry.

“The only people that I can think of that have been together as long as Jimmie and I have would be Dale Inman and Richard Petty. And that’s going back a long time ago, so Jimmie and I definitely have a leg up on the competition from that standpoint, just from the standpoint that we’re comfortable, we understand one another and we always know that each one of us is giving everything that we’ve got.”

Johnson has expressed that he has more time left in Monster Energy Series competition. So has Knaus. But Johnson also acknowledged with the grueling nature of a crew chief’s job, he understands that Knaus’ career may not play out as long as his. Crew chiefs “live in dog years,” he said.

Knaus smiled upon hearing that and assured he still has a “handful of years to go.”

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“Motorsports is very addictive,” he said. “The lifestyle is addictive, the pace is addictive. We’ve heard it time and time again that as people continue to go and perform, they want to continue to have that success and that euphoria of competition and what is there. I enjoy motorsports, I enjoy racing, still — I love going to the race track and having the opportunity to compete and race against people. So, I don’t see me transitioning any time real soon but I don’t see me going until I’m 55 years old, either.”

By that time, Knaus will have another figure in his life as wife Brooke is pregnant with the couple’s first child. Priorities have changed, he said, but not his career aspirations.

“You think about other things maybe a little bit differently; home life, housing, finances, all that kind of stuff,” Knaus said. “I think it just comes natural as you’re starting a family. I’m excited about the adventure … I’ve waited a long time to get to this point. I knew that I was not ready to have a child or start a family until I got to about this time. I needed to go out there and prove that I could be successful and have some success and kind of do what I needed to do. I don’t think having a family or a change in the family is going to take away from what I do in motorsports at all …

“Honestly I needed to mature and I have matured and I’ve learned an awful lot because of what it is with my job. Not by any means did I understand what it was like to have a child or a family yet. But working in the environment that we have with 600 teammates and different emotions that people go through has helped me a lot and got me ready for it.”

Knaus making the comment that he had to prove himself as a crew chief speaks volumes to his competitive nature and desire for perfectionism; he’s won seven championships and 81 races with Johnson over the past 19 years, but still felt that he needed to prove himself before starting a family. That drive that was forged on the local Midwestern tracks is ever-present today.

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On Sunday, he’ll look to put a tally in the win column at Chicagoland Speedway, leaving only two tracks on the circuit where Johnson-Knaus have not won. That day, he’ll also be inducted into the track’s Legends Club, which plays homage to important and successful figures in racing.

True to form, Knaus hopes there’s room for amendments by his name.

“At first, I was like, ‘Man that’s really cool,’ and then as I thought about it, I was like ‘Man, that means I’m kind of old, too,’ ” Knaus said with a smile. “It’s one of those things – I like the fact that they’re doing that, it makes me feel very special obviously with the other people that have been inducted into that arena.

“But we’re also not done. So, when I spoke to some of the people a while ago, and said, ‘Well, I hope you guys just leave a little bit of space behind my name because I think we’re going to have some more stats to put in there.’ “