Still no word on contract extension

From Fox Sports:

Chad Knaus not worried about contract with Hendrick Motorsports
Jimmie Johnson re-upped with Hendrick Motorsports last year. Crew chief Chad Knaus, an equally important part of the team that has won four straight Cup championships, hasn't extended his current contract beyond 2010.

Knaus, however, is convinced his deal will get done in due time.

"The contract deal will get done at some point," Knaus said. "I'm signed up through the end of 2010, and it's not on the forefront of my mind right now. What's important to me right now is just getting the cars built, getting to Daytona and getting the season back in place. Once the contract negotiations start, then we'll worry about that."

Johnson and Knaus are viewed as an inseparable combination, but Knaus said he could envision working with another driver -- just not any time soon.

"We really enjoy working with each other -- and why change it?" Knaus said. "Will I at some point work with another driver? Yeah -- I mean, more than likely. Will he work with another crew chief? Yeah, more than likely. Let's be honest. He's younger than I am. He's probably going to drive longer than I want to be a crew chief.

"Am I in a managerial role somewhere else doing something, or am I in a managerial role here working with these other teams? At some point, yeah, I'll be working with other people. Do I hope that he's always a part of my relationship with Hendrick Motorsports? One hundred percent. I'd love for that to be the case.

"There are no guarantees in life. You don't know what's going to happen years down the road. I feel like I've got four to six more years that I can do this, and then that's it. Then I've got to go and do something else. Now, hopefully, that go-and-do-something else is here."

Four to six more years? Aww... Well, I hope it's six instead of four. I mean, he definitely deserves more relaxation in his life at some point, but I can't say I won't be bummed when the time comes. At least he still sees himself at HMS and involved in racing in some capacity at that point, though. I can't believe it'll only be around five more years until we're all sitting around talking about "the good old days" with Chad and Jimmie, just like my dad talks about guys like Smokey Yunick and Junior Johnson. Wow, this is depressing! I'm going to stop before this devolves into crazy stuff like complaining about my gray hairs and how some of my friends are married with kids already and oh my god is that a wrinkle and stuff like that, lol!

Well, just one more thing: this is exactly why I'm enjoying this championship run so much. Some people roll their eyes when you try to say this is history in the making, and they think it's boring to see the 48 win over and over, but I know time will fly by and someday - sooner than I think - I'll be bragging to my kid(s) about how I got to see Jimmie and Chad win at Fontana, which is mine and Jimmie's home track, the year they won four championships in a row. I don't know about you, but I think that's a pretty cool thing to get to experience in your lifetime.