(By NASCAR Wire Service)
Posted: Friday,October 28th, 2011
Crew chief Chad Knaus admits that he told five-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson to intentionally damage his car if he won the race at Talladega on Sunday in case the car was out of tolerance because of the rigors of restrictor-plate racing, according to a report on SBNation.com.
Audio from NASCAR.com’s RaceBuddy picked up a conversation between Knaus and Johnson prior to the race from the microphone on an in-car camera inside Johnson’s car.
According to the audio, obtained by SBNation, Knaus told Johnson, “If we win this race, you have to crack the back of the car. Got it?”
Johnson, sounding surprised, replied, “Really?”
(R-L) Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe's Chevrolet, stands with crew chief Chad Knaus. (Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Knaus then said, “Yes. Got it? You don’t have to have to hit it hard, you don’t have to destroy it. But you’ve gotta do a donut and you’ve gotta hit the back end, or somebody’s gotta hit you in the ass-end or something. OK?”
Johnson didn’t reply, prompting Knaus to add, “You’ll be alright. Can’t take any chances.”
Knaus told SBNation that he wasn’t trying to cover up any sort of violation or do something fishy.
“To be honest with you, here’s the deal—racing at Talladega is tough, and I think everybody understands that,” Knaus told the website. “You run 500 miles at 200 miles per hour, and you’re bump-drafting and you’re beating on one another, and it’s real easy for these cars to get outside of tolerance.
“It’s a tight tolerance that we’re held in. It doesn’t take much to be a few thousands (of an inch) off and have NASCAR raise an eyebrow. Just being proactive, I just told Jimmie, ‘Look, man—we’ve just got to make sure there’s a tire mark or some type of visible damage.’ Just because cars do move when you race them like that.”
The Hendrick car passed inspection three times during the race weekend—opening-day inspection, pre-qualifying inspection as well as a post-qualifying inspection. Johnson won at Talladega in April with the same car. He finished 26th on Sunday.
Knaus has been penalized and suspended in the past for technical violations. He told SBNation that his comments to Johnson at Talladega were out of concern that a legal car would be bump-drafted beyond the tolerances.
“It’s a tight championship Chase,” Knaus said. “Everybody’s trying to get into it, everybody’s trying to do the best they can for their team and their organization. And to try to cover a base, I just threw that out there. We didn’t need it anyway, so it doesn’t really much matter.”
Knaus was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
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