More Homestead Photos

Oh my gosh, so many pictures, so little time! I think I'll just post a few highlights (for the visual effect, hehe), and then I'll just post the links to the rest of the pics, because WOW there are a lot.

More (from Facebook):

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Pic 5 (That is one funny look Chandra is giving him, lol!)
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Pic 11 (Original caption: "CK's dry uniform waiting in the wings." Now THAT's thinking with your dipstick!)
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Pic 15 (whatever camera company that is got a heck of a lot of free advertising that day)
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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! I hope you all have a great day with lots of good cheer! Eat lots of turkey (if you like turkey, that is...if not, well, eat lots of whatever you do like, lol)!

Here's something I think everybody around here is thankful for this week... ain't nothing like seeing my boys surrounded by 4 - count 'em 4 - Sprint Cup trophies!

I'm also thankful that Jimmie is going to be making an appearance at the Lowe's in Santee on Monday!! I don't know if anybody else who reads this lives in San Diego, but if you do, it's the one on Mission Gorge Rd., and it goes from 7-10 pm. I'm so excited! I've never seen any of the drivers up close and personal, and now I get a chance to see Mr. 4-Time Champ in our hometown! Ahhh, this is so cool!

Now if only he'd drag Chad along with him... Come on, Chad, you'll like San Diego! We've got, like, the beach and stuff. Oh, and nice weather. Ok, San Diego's not really that exciting, but hey, seeing as how the only part of California you ever get to go to is Fontana, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, hehe.

Chad's Future at HMS?

In an ESPN article from Tuesday, it was reported that Hendrick had extended Chad Knaus's contract through 2015, but according to this new AP article, Chad denied that statement today, saying, "We've only started very light conversations. I don't have a new contract, and we've barely had enough conversation for me to agree to anything." His current contract expires after the 2010 season.

In other news: big shocker! Sorry girls, this is going to come as a big disappointment, but according to former crew chief Robbie Loomis, Chad is already married! :Gasp!: ...To his work, that is. Gotcha! Aren't I mean? But anyway, come on, Robbie, tell us something we don't know - I don't think there's a doubt in anybody's mind as to what comes first for Chad at this point in time. And all jokes aside, this whole article is definitely worth a read...for instance, did you know Chad worked for $6 an hour when he first came to HMS? Heck, I don't know, I'd work for free if I could work there (and I'm sure Chad would have, too, if the $6 wasn't available). Here's the link:

Life often on hold as Knaus remains devoted to No. 48

Homestead Photos

All righty, here are a few to start you off! I'll be adding more in the next few days, so check back often! (Sorry they're kind of in a weird order, by the way... Blogspot is not exactly user-friendly when it comes to pictures. Or maybe I'm just dumb. Either way, I'm having a hard time here, d'oh.)

Now isn't this first one just too cute or what? How does he do that?

Homestead Video

I'm not quite ready to deal with the barrage of photos from this weekend just yet, so I'll start you off with some video coverage!

Chad Knaus Celebrates Four in a Row (ESPN)

Jimmie Johnson gets his fourth consecutive Cup Series title (NASCAR.com)

Sights and Sounds: Homestead (NASCAR.com)

Retrospect: Johnson's four championships (NASCAR.com)

Jimmie & Chad in the Media Center (YouTube)

And here's a little something extra - This is Chad's interview from the "Real Deal with Wendy Venturini" segment of RaceDay. I've been hoping someone would post the video from this ever since it aired!

The Real Deal with Wendy Venturini: Chad Knaus Profile

4-PEAT!!!!

WOOHOO!!! Congratulations to Chad, Jimmie, Mr. Hendrick, and the whole 48 team! I feel so honored to be able to say that I saw history being written last night - thanks for making it happen! You guys have worked so hard the last eight years, and you deserve to accomplish what no one else has done because of all that time, effort, blood, and sweat you put into it. What can I say? You're the best!

And congrats to Chad, who not only became the first 4-time champ crew chief ever last night, but also won the WYPALL Wipers Crew Chief of the Year award for the second time. Awesome!

Message from Chad

A message to the fans (I have no idea what it says because I lost my headphones, d'oh):

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=554300210809

I'm going out of town tomorrow, so if you don't hear anything out of me Sunday or Monday, you'll know why. I promise I'll have pics galore by Tuesday or Wednesday, though!

Homestead Pole & Other News

The #48 qualified 1st today at Homestead-Miami Speedway, woohoo! Put on yer chapstick, Jimmie, 'cause Chad's coming in for the real deal, lol! I just about died when I heard that, bwahaha.

Anyway, I knew by the twinkle in Chad's eye last week on Victory Lane as he was talking about the Homestead car that he had a little something special in store for this week, and sure enough, he wasn't kidding, although I don't think Jimmie quite believed it until he got out there and turned that lap. Nicely done!

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More news:

• Chad Knaus was named the WYPALL Wipers Crew Chief of the Race for Phoenix. Don't quote me on it, but I believe this moves him ahead of Darian Grubb and into 1st place. (Paddock Talk)
  
•  HMS re-signed Lowe's as a sponsor for the #48 through 2013, JJ has signed through 2015, and they're working on a lifetime contract with Chad (wow!). (Jayski.com)
  
• Here is the text from the Q&A with Chad and Alan Gustafson from Tuesday. Finally!

Vote for Chad in the Stewies

The nominees are in for the 2009 Stewie Awards, and I am proud to announce that Messrs. Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson have been co-nominated for the Smokey Yunick Award (Best Engineering and Special Effects)! They were selected for an "Honorable Mention" nomination for being warned by NASCAR officials that their cars were "too close to the tolerance limits" yet not actually illegal. You can vote at http://www.sirius.com/stewieawards through Sunday, Nov. 29. The Stewie Awards will be broadcast live from the Rio Las Vegas on Thursday, Dec. 3 at 10 pm ET on Sirius & XM channel 128.

I think they deserve to win the award, don't you? The rest of the nominees are kind of blah this year (front end's too low...what else is new?) except for Carl Long and his oversized engine, but this is supposed to be "acknowledging the year's most 'creative' modifications to a race car," and I don't think that was all that "creative." So even though I'm just a little biased, I'm going to give it to Chad and Alan because it was creative in that they didn't get caught because it was just this side of illegal! Also, you can't discount the size of the stir it caused... I've never seen such a big flap over nothing in my life, and I think that should count for something, lol.

ESPN Video - Side by Side: Jimmie and Chad

I didn't want this to get lost in amongst the other news stuff because this is really cute (and not exactly news), so it's getting its own post. Chad and Jimmie sit down and talk about their relationship, how they met, and their vacation experiences, lol (is this sounding like a married couple or what?).

Side by Side: Jimmie and Chad (ESPN.com)

That's interesting that Chad thinks Kyle reminds him of himself. I can see the similarities, now that he mentions it; they are both hella driven. Hehehe, I definitely would not want to see them on the same team, though - restraining order, anyone? The media wouldn't have to wonder what to do for excitement, that's for sure; just point the cameras at those two and let 'er rip! And poor Chad...no vacations! I'm glad Jimmie made him take one, even if they did run bad for the next 4 weeks (jeez, easy on the piña coladas next time, guys!).

New favorite quote: "I'm not a nice guy." That's okay, Chad, we love you anyway! Competitiveness and all.

Phoenix News Round-Up

Print:

• PIR newsmaker: Crew chief Chad Knaus - AZ Central.com (Interview with Chad. No yoga questions, though...darn!)
  
• Post-Race Interview with Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus & Rick Hendrick - Auto Racing Daily
  
• Johnson, Knaus making it work - San Diego Union Tribune (Jimmie talks about Chad psychology)

Video:

• Chase 4 History: Phoenix
• SPEED Victory Lane (no Chad interview, but he is hanging around in the background...that counts, right?)

Photos:

• Chad and Alan Gustafson at a teleconference - Team Lowe's Racing Facebook (there's another picture after this one...click "next" at the top right of the photo)
• Chad and Alan, same teleconference - Twitpic by KendraTeam5

Uh, so apparently there was a teleconference with Chad and Alan this morning, and apparently we could have listened to it live on NASCAR.com if we'd known what time it was going to start, but apparently we're now out of luck because they're not archiving it on the site. I'm sorry I didn't know about this ahead of time...I'm falling down on the job, guys. I sure would've liked to have heard it, darn it! If it pops up on YouTube or something, you'll be the first to know.

Phoenix Photos

Woo, Victory Lane pics - my favorite kind! Enjoy!

I just had to give a shout-out to these guys because they're super rad! I saw them on TV, too. Way to represent!

Muahaha, and I just love that Gatorade shower one - I'm so glad somebody got a shot of it!

48 Wins at Phoenix!!

THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT, BOYS!!!  Jimmie went out and dominated the Duel in the Desert yesterday, thanks in part to a great setup by Chad and the gang. Phoenix can be a tough place to figure out, but the 48 team made it look like a cakewalk. It was so awesome to watch them go out there and kick butt and take names after what happened last weekend. I'm so proud! I know some people are tired of Jimmie and Chad winning championship after championship, but you can't say they don't deserve it. They just bring it every darn week.

Hehe, I loved watching the victory lane celebrations... I swear you can tell how much fun the crew is having by how much of a shower they give Chad, lol! First somebody dumped an entire bottle of Gatorade down his neck, and then somebody sneaked up with what was left of their champagne and poured it in his ear. Ahh, good times! Even the guys on SPEED's Victory Lane got in on the "fun" when one of the crew guys (edit: not Rich Gutierrez, but Doug Morgan...I finally figured it out!) came up and gave 'em a big ol' Gatorade bath. Suddenly they had purple shirts instead of blue - ah, the magic of NASCAR!

(Sorry for the hold up, by the way. I wish I could say it's because I was out celebrating yesterday, but no, my modem just pooped out...this is the second time in a matter of months, argh!)

Phoenix Qualifying: 3rd

Jimmie will start 3rd in the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway this Sunday. Nice work, team! Only Martin Truex, Jr. and Kurt Busch were faster (which is kind of cool because it's the first time ever cars #1 and #2 will be starting 1st and 2nd - trippy, huh?).

In a Q&A session at Phoenix today, Mark Martin had some interesting things to say about the similarities he sees between himself and Chad:

Q. Mark, since you've had time now at Hendrick to work with some of the different crew chiefs, what have you learned about Chad Knaus in your dealings with him? Is there somebody over your years of experience, a crew chief in the past, a figure in the past, that he's kind of like? You also mentioned there's a little bit of Rick Hendrick in everybody. What part of Rick Hendrick is in Chad Knaus?

MARK MARTIN: That's too hard a question, okay, too in-depth. That's a pretty tough question. I will answer part of that question.

I see a lot of myself, younger self, in Chad Knaus, I do. Although I wasn't a crew chief. He is very, very intense. He pushes really, really hard. He leaves no stone unturned. He's insanely driven. That reminds me a lot of my younger self. So that I see.

You got to remember, I don't work next to Chad all the time. I can't get into his, you know, really, really great details. I see his work ethic. That's what I notice, his drive and determination. That's really what I see the most of.

Caption Thursday

I have too much time on my hands (I never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait until I go back to school for the spring semester...English major girl here is taking math and physics, omg!), so I'm going to try a little humor today. I hope these aren't completely unfunny - I'm not a pro like the cool kids over at lolNASCAR - but I'll give it a try anyway.

"What the %*$#?  Who drew Mickey Mouse pictures all over my graph?  JOHNSON!!!"

"Last week you said they were more like guidelines than actual rules!"

 JJ: "Hey, you do that 'Thinker' thing really good!"

Chad: "That's muh job!"

JJ: "Narf! Zort! Poit! Egad!"

Chad: "Jimmie, remind me to hurt you later."

(lol, poor Jimmie, he has to play Pinky in this one...sorry, dude!)

Aaaaannnd that's all, folks!  Before we go, here's another cool article by good ol' Claire B. Lang about how the 48 team exemplified the Lowe's slogan of "Let's Build Something together" this weekend at Texas and throughout the season.

• 48 Team Post Texas Motor Speedway Crash "Let's Build Something Together"

High Art in the Texas Garage

I thought this was a nice little write-up about the performance art that Chad and the crew put on for us on Sunday by transforming a mangled heap back into a raceable - and downright svelte - stock car.

Memo: Fixing as Cool as Crashing - Racin' Today

I agree - I thought it was just as fun to watch them go to work and keep their cool amid all the potential chaos as it was watching the race. I mean, I know these guys are fookin' great at what they do, and that's why they're champs, but when you see it in action, it just really hits you.

I don't agree with this part, though:

"And even auto-racing media and fans love to go way overboard and link pit stops with ballet or sideways saves with supernatural intervention. Hey, it's mere repetition and fear getting the job done and, sometimes, not."

Repetition and fear? Well, if by repetition you mean long, hard hours of practice supervised by a professional coach hired by the team, then yeah, I guess it is repetition. There's nothing "mere" about it, though. And fear? Well, I'm sure there's quite an adrenaline rush, no doubt, but you have to have your head on straight in order to execute those moves that smoothly. It may look like a frenzy to us, but just because they're moving fast doesn't mean they're not moving deliberately. As someone who has actually TAKEN ballet (and jazz and tap), I think the metaphor is spot-on. I guess I'm just generally way overboard...everything JJ does on the track and everything Chad and the crew does off the track never ceases to amaze me, and this is a shining example of that.

By the way, does anyone else wish they'd run the car with an all-black front for the rest of the season (or even into next season)? The author was talking about how menacing the car looked after it came back out, and I'm inclined to agree. Slap a Lowe's logo on the hood, and that is one bad mutha-shut-yo-mouth car!

Texas Photos

Despite the lack of cowboy hattage, there was plenty of Chad to go around this weekend. The first four pics are from practice and the rest are from the race. Plus I thought I'd throw in one of the "back in black" car just for grins because actually, it looked kind of bad-ass after they got done with it.

Well, being the doofus I am, I somehow deleted this entire post and had to start from scratch. Everything's back (plus a couple more) except for the links to the Harold Hinson site, which was a pain in the butt to figure out to start with, so you're on your own with those. I apologize for the inconvenience; floggings will continue until quality improves.