It is late Friday morning of the Phoenix Nextel Cup weekend, otherwise known as Race 8 of the Chase for the Championship. Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus huddle over the trunk lid of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet, looking at speed charts and making notes about shock and spring rates
For three races-even in the wake of the tragic plane crash that killed team members, friends, and family-they have been perfect.
Three races. Three wins. Four victories-more than any other driver-in the final 10-race sprint for the 2004 title.
Victory by victory, they are becoming the second Hendrick Motorsports dynasty, copying the type of winning effort that made Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham legends in the NASCAR garages.
Last season Johnson and Knaus met in Victory Circle eight times, more than any other team. They finished the 2004 season in Second Place, only eight points behind Nextel Cup Champion Kurt Busch.
No one knows for sure what it is that moves a successful team up to the next step. It is an elusive relationship between the driver and crewchief, one that flows to every member of the crew
It happened to Gordon and Evernham and The Rainbow Warriors in the '90s. Working with Evernham, Gordon won three Winston Cup championships and 49 races in six seasons, including 13 trips to Victory Circle in 1998.
It worked to a lesser degree with Tony Stewart and Greg Zipadelli in 2002 and with Matt Kenseth and Robbie Reiser in 2003
And if you consider wins and poles, the engineering duo of Ryan Newman and Matt Borland has to be on any list of current super-teams in the garage.
The common denominator in each of the current combinations is, in each one of them, the driver and crewchief were new to their roles in NASCAR's top racing tier. They learned their craft together and from one another.
That was certainly the case with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his former crewchief, Tony Eury Sr., who was promoted late last year to director of competition for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. In some ways, the pairing of Eury Sr. and Earnhardt Jr. closely paralleled the driver/crewchief relationship of many short-track racers. It is one of cousins, uncles, and friends all working together to make a team successful
Tony Eury Sr. is Earnhardt's uncle. He learned his craft by racing with Earnhardt's legendary father. Tony Jr. is Earnhardt's cousin. What Eury Sr. brought to the crewchief's role was a first sergeant's demand for perfection and a level of comfort for the crew, knowing that the man in charge had pretty much seen it all and done it twice
In the closing laps of the Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix in November, Earnhardt pleaded with Eury for new rubber during a late race caution, but the crewchief insisted he stay on the oval to maintain track position.
Earnhardt lost the argument, but won the race.
The Right MatchNone of the drivers or crewchiefs can identify the ingredient that makes the difference. They all contend it isn't magic. But it can be magical. They often call it chemistry. It is the unique mix of talent and personalities that make the sum of their abilities more than the individual parts.
"I don't think what we have with me and Ryan would work with a different driver or a different crewchief," says Matt Borland, who heads the team behind the Alltel Dodge driven by Ryan Newman. He looked up and down the garage and said he couldn't find another driver whose personality better matches his own.
"I think that's the reason that when you get a combination that works, when they separate, they may never work as well again with someone else," Borland says. "It isn't that the individuals have changed, it is the combination that is different."
"It all begins with respect," says Knaus. "I don't tell Jimmie what to do in the car and he doesn't tell me what to do with the car. I've got tremendous respect for what Jimmie can do in the Lowe's car. It's my job to give him the car to do it with."