NASCAR Atlanta recap: Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus showcase brilliance

From Chad Knaus’ viewpoint atop Jimmie Johnson’s pit box, his driver’s only chance to beat Kevin Harvick was with a tactical gambit of some kind Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

With Harvick possessing the clearly faster car and the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 nearing completion, Knaus needed to find a way to get Johnson ahead, which would place the onus on Harvick to run down and then pass the No. 48 car.

Knaus boldly and decisively concocted a plan that would see Johnson pit with 49 laps remaining. Because fresh tires presented such an edge Sunday (upwards of two-and-a-half seconds faster) due to Atlanta’s aged surface (the track was last repaved in 1997), Johnson would quickly chop multiple seconds off Harvick’s lead thereby erasing any deficit.

While a gamble, Knaus was still playing with house money. If the call backfired and Johnson couldn’t hold on, he was still well positioned for a finish somewhere in the top five -- exactly where he was running before Knaus told him to pit.

“You could just see it, around 40 laps, everybody wanted to pit and everybody was getting nervous about their tires,” Knaus said. “As we were going through the race our (tire wear) was getting better, so we were like, ‘Shoot, let’s go ahead and throw it out there and see what happens.’”

But the call did present risks. If a caution came out before Harvick and the other leaders pitted, then Johnson would be trapped a lap down effectively ending his race. And with tire wear severe Sunday, Johnson would need to manage his tires beyond the constraints he had operated within all afternoon.

“It was a gamble for sure,” Knaus said. “It was just a matter of how early to pit because if we only pitted just a couple laps earlier than everybody else, it would have pulled the rest of them down with us. We had to make it to where we did it to where it would make them uncomfortable and not willing maybe to take that risk.”

When informed he would be short-pitting, Johnson didn’t balk at Knaus’ instructions nor did he second-guess his crew chief as the two had talked pre-race about the need to be aggressive. But what Johnson didn’t realize was just how aggressive Knaus was willing to be to win.

Nonetheless, Johnson came to pit road, got service and returned to the track without incident, though a lap behind.

“I really felt like that was going to hurt us, and late in the run I assumed Kevin would just run me back down,” Johnson said. “... Definitely a gutsy call.”

With Johnson having pitted, Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers now had to counter. Neither, however, were confident of being able to make it to the finish without suffering a tire-related issue, as 35 laps was about the limit of how far teams could go on a set of Goodyears.

When Harvick eventually pitted with 41 laps left, his stop was anything but routine with the front tire-changer a bit slow in removing the left wheel. That only magnified the advantage Johnson had gained, going from trailing Harvick by three seconds to nearly 14 seconds ahead.

Now Harvick had to play catchup, and quickly he went about trimming Johnson’s lead, knocking it all the way down to five seconds. This presented a new challenge and shifted the onus back to the six-time series champion and whether he could both nurse his tires and also fend off a charging Harvick.

“Being the hunted, it’s just a weird position to be in,” Johnson said. “You just know he’s coming. You’re staring in the mirror and wondering where he’s at, and then also wondering if Chad was telling me the truth about lap times and the gap back to him.”

A caution with six laps remaining further complicated matters. With everyone on worn tires the decision to pit was universal, but an overtime restart would determine the outcome. This is where Johnson, with his crew chief already doing everything he could to score a victory, took control of his own fate.

Positioned in the preferred inside lane with Harvick to his outside, Johnson executed a textbook restart while Harvick spun his tires and fell back to sixth.

The victory was the 76th of Johnson’s career, but carried added meaning. It moved him into a tie with the late Dale Earnhardt on NASCAR’s all-time wins list and came with Earnhardt’s son, Dale Jr., finishing second.

Beyond the sentimental symmetry, though, Atlanta offered yet another showcase why Johnson and Knaus are arguably the greatest driver-crew chief combination in NASCAR history. Even on days when others are better, the pair still finds a way to prevail.

If they cannot beat the competition on outright dominance, Knaus will formulate a superior game plan while Johnson will do his part by performing flawlessly on the track.

“Guys have got to manage their tires, they’ve got to be smart,” team owner Rick Hendrick said. “A crew chief has got to make the right call.”

Precisely how Johnson and Knaus excelled on Sunday.