Knaus makes change to Johnson's pit crew

As you might recall, Jimmie Johnson was not happy with his team after the New Hampshire race earlier this month. Johnson told me after the race he was “running out of patience’’ with the team for the mistakes that had been made.

Among the things Johnson said after exiting car after rallying to a fifth-place finish was: “When it’s key times for stops, we have mistakes. I’ve been real patient all year trying to build. I’m running out of patience. I care for these guys deeply for going over the wall and I know they’re very talented guys, but we’re getting into my livelihood in a little bit when we get into this Chase and we’ve got to be right. Thankfully we’ve got an off week and we can work on some stuff and try to figure out a solution.’’

Well, Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus was on SPEED Channel’s “Race Hub’’ on Monday and was asked about what Johnson said. Knaus stated on the show that the team will have a new front tire changer for this weekend’s race at Indianapolis.

Now, understand that the pit crew was an issue for Johnson’s team last year _ and one could argue nearly cost him the title. With that in mind, Knaus restructured the pit crew so that guys were interchangeable. Think of it as creating first and second teams in football. If the backup excels in practice and the starter struggles, then the backup can get the starter’s job. Same thing here. If the backup pit crew member did better in practice, he could take the starter's job.

So, in one sense, this is just part of what Knaus has been doing all year. In another sense, time is winding down to figure out a pit crew lineup. With competition so close and strategy (and pit work) playing such a key role in who wins, it’s hard to imagine changing the pit crew throughout the Chase can be the best thing because of how it could disrupt the unit. Then again, Knaus could prove that theory wrong.

Here’s what Knaus said about his pit crew and Johnson's comments at New Hampshire on “Race Hub’’….

“That was a long-term project and we are still working through it … and look, there are going to be times when we go through growing pains. As a whole, our pit crew has done a very good job. We’ve got a lot of brand new guys that came up through our developmental program. We’ve got a couple of veteran guys on the team as well, but all new guys to the over-the-wall team and they are doing a great job.

“We’ve got some problems; we understand that. So, I say ‘great job’ in a broad sense. We’ve got one position and it’s the front tire changer position we are working on.

“We are going to make some changes for this weekend. We’re going to have a new front tire changer this weekend and we are going to be trying him out. We’ve gone through a couple throughout the season until we find that guy that fits in there and gels and can get it done for us.

“We’re working through that and we are not making any changes to the structure as far as we run the 48 and 88 teams. So, it’s got an upside, but it’s going to take a little bit of time to get there and Jimmie understands that. He was speaking out of frustration that day and we all understand that. It was hot and he’d just run 300 laps at Loudon. It was a long day and that happens and everyone has to be prepared for that as you go through the growing process.”  

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