Better known as ingenuity, here’s what Chad Knaus did to the 2016 championship winning car
Jimmie Johnson is tied for the most NASCAR Cup Series titles of all time. He won his last in 2016 with Hendrick Motorsports.
The driver recently visited that championship winning car at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. And, as he talked about the car with his family we have insight into a new cheating story.
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Johnson won the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and claimed his 7th championship in 2016. He had to come from the back to do it.
Crew chief Chad Knaus was notorious for pushing the rule book. He has a full list of suspensions from NASCAR to prove it.
NASCAR penalized the Hendrick Motorsports #48 team after qualifying at Homestead. Now, we know why.
As Johnson walked around the car with his family, he talked about the details of the penalty…
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Jimmie Johnson details ingenuity by Chad Knaus
“It’s a good car,” Johnson said as he candidly talked with his family.
“And, so there’s a story about us getting in trouble and starting at the back of the field. This [tearoff] we intentionally left it long.”
“That’s how you’d clean the windshield on a pit stop. This was intentionally left long by like a 1/4 of an inch.”
“When you peeled the first one off, it let the vinyl peel and flip back. It looked like the sticker was going to come off. But, that sticker created a trip lip.”
“It would make the air attach then come back down on the car and put more downforce on the spoiler. And uh, it was against the rules. They saw it and sent us to the back of the field.”
“So, I had to come from last. We still won.”
With the win, Johnson picked up his 7th and final NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Johnson is now the co-owner of Legacy Motor Club. He still races part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series for his own team.
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Jimmie Johnson visits his 2016 winning car
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Links
Hendrick Motorsports | Legacy Motor Club | Jimmie Johnson | NASCAR
