MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Between them, Jeff Gordon and Chad Knaus have 11 NASCAR Cup Series championships at Hendrick Motorsports. Gordon won four as a driver and Knaus was the crew chief for all seven of Jimmie Johnson’s record-tying NASCAR Cup Series championships.
Both have climbed the ranks at Hendrick Motorsports. Gordon is Vice Chairman as team owner Rick Hendrick’s key leader in overseeing the entire operation. Knaus is Vice President of Competition at Hendrick Motorsports.
That championship prowess remains for the two racing greats as Hendrick Motorsports has two drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 – 50 percent of the field.
Kyle Larson won the 2021 NASCAR Cup title with Hendrick Motorsports and returns to the Championship Race in the No. 5 Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet. William Byron is seeking his first Cup championship in the No. 24 Chevrolet – the number made great by Gordon.
Larson was the first to advance into this year’s Championship 4 by winning the opening race in the Round of Eight at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 15.
Byron had to do it the hard way, the last of the four drivers to advance, getting in on points by slim margin of 8 over Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing.
Hamlin drove to a third place finish last Sunday at Martinsville and was competitive. Byron’s car was a struggle and he finished 13th.
“Chad and I have a few more gray hairs today,” Gordon told SPEED SPORT earlier this weekend from the Hendrick Motorsports shop. “You know any time you go to a short track like Martinsville, there are no guarantees, and you know Denny Hamlin is going to run good. What Ryan Blaney (race winner) and those guys have done recently have been impressive and we knew they would be good from looking at practice.
“We knew it would difficult, especially after qualifying mid-field. I don’t know that any of us expected it to be that close all day long.
“I’m incredibly proud of the fight these guys have in them. Look at what they have accomplished and the confidence they have built all year long to be the complete team they are, they never wavered from that and used all of that confidence and applied it on a really difficult day and found a way to get through, go onto Phoenix, and race for a championship.”
According to Knaus, they just missed the setup at Martinsville, but managed expectations and did what they had to do to advance.
Byron is the season’s biggest winner with six NASCAR Cup Series victories in 2023. Although he is the only driver that didn’t advance into the Championship 4 with a victory, it is important that this year’s winningest driver has a chance to win the championship on Sunday.
“I think it’s important because that gets drowned out and lost a little bit,” Knaus told SPEED SPORT from the Hendrick Motorsports shop Monday. “As you go through the playoffs and the race up to the Final Four, you lose a little bit of the luster of how many wins you have had throughout the course of the season opposed to year’s past.
“I do think that is important and a critical aspect of it.”
Hendrick Motorsports has Larson, the only driver of the Championship 4 that has previously won a NASCAR Cup Series Championship, and Byron, the driver with the most wins this season. They will fight it out against Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing, who won at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 22, and Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, the Martinsville Speedway winner on October 29.
“I think it’s going to be a heck of a battle,” Gordon said. “We typically go to Phoenix knowing you almost have to win to win the championship and that will be the case again this weekend.
“Even though this is a unique format and there are eliminations and factors in play, I believe the four drivers that are most deserving or meant to be there are there and that is the case.
“Of course, we are biased to the two that are in there, but if you look at the ones that have the ability to win the championship, all four of those guys can easily do that.”
Knaus and the competition staff have done their part by preparing the Chevrolets that will compete in Sunday’s Championship Race at a unique and challenging one-mile Phoenix Raceway.
“It’s a tough race track since the repave,” Knaus explained. “It’s a tough race track. Aerodynamic dependence is super high. It’s a short race so qualifying is critical. Pit strategy is really important. You will see some guys do alternative strategies to try to win this thing.
“Some will stay out. Somebody will do two tires at a point in time when you think you should do four. It’s going to be a really tough one.
“And the cars are bait. You don’t see a tremendous amount of improvement rolling from what you had the last four or five weeks into Phoenix because everybody has brought everything they have got just to get to this point.
“You are going to have the four best cars in the industry, and the four best teams out there battling for it.”
Two of those drivers have significant open wheel and sprint car experience with Larson and Bell.
That is the path that started Gordon on his rise in racing.
“Driver skills comes form a lot of different areas,” Gordon said. “What I love about NASCAR, and I go back to how my career path led to NASCAR is car owners and teams are looking for talented drivers. You find them wherever you think that falls.
“Right now, a lot of guys with dirt background and open wheel background are finding their way to link what they are learning and their skillset to stock car racing.
“These cars are not easy to drive, and you are slipping and sliding around at a lot of these tracks. You have to have a diverse set of skills to be good at so many different tracks. Guys that race on dirt have to also be very diverse and search around the track for different grooves.
“I’m not really surprised. The industry is looking in a broader area in finding it. There are talented guys coming from short track, late model racing. It’s really looking for the drivers that excel, succeed and are adaptable to get into a big, heavy stock car that have never been in one.”
Gordon believes Larson is playing a big role in sprint car and dirt racing’s resurgence. He competes regularly throughout the week, and he is owner of both the High Limit Sprint Car Series and the recently purchased All-Star Race of Champions.
Those two series will be combined into one next season for an even-bigger series.
“One of our biggest focuses right now from a marketing perspective is connecting grass roots racing, all forms of it, and connecting it all the way to NASCAR at the Cup level,” Gordon explained. “At Martinsville last weekend, people that I came across are huge grass roots fans.
“The more you support grass roots racing, you are building young fans, technicians, future crew chiefs and drivers, it all starts at the grass-roots level.”
Gordon grew up in racing from behind the steering wheel of a race car. Knaus climbed the ranks with a wrench in one hand and a setup sheet.
Both experienced many championships.
Today, they have adapted from that to the boardroom and are on the verge of another championship at Phoenix.
“If you have a desire and a certain work ethic, an area you excel at and want to continue to advance it and stay a part of it and take it to the next level, you figure out what your next move is,” Gordon said. “You bring that experience to the next level.
“I give Chad a ton of credit doing what he does now. The department has gotten larger and broader, but you are trying to connect the dots. As a driver, all the work I did with sponsors over the years and being in front of cameras, leading those championship teams have helped prepare us for doing what we do now.
“We are there supporting to help take those teams to the next level.”
On Saturday night, the cars will be locked up in the NASCAR Cup Series garage area. The work will be finished by the team and it the championship will be decided on the track.
“Rudy Fugle is a big old bundle of emotions,” Knaus said of Byron’s crew chief. “He is such a great guy and extremely intense.
“I told him, ‘The emotions you are going through right now, you need to make sure you understand this is why you do this. That’s why we want to be part of the Championship 4. Yes, we are nervous and yes, we feel stress, but that is why we are in motorsports and do what we do; to help these guys carve their place in the history books.’
“Yes, we are nervous. Yes, we have anxiety. But that’s why we do it.
“If you didn’t have these emotions, you wouldn’t want to really do it any more.”
Gordon is excited about the opportunity to race for another championship. To have a chance at Hendrick Motorsports getting a 15th NASCAR Cup Series championship “blows our mind.”
“We take a lot of pride into what we have accomplished up to this point,” Gordon said. “When you see the people, all year long working so hard to get the cars to the track, to get into the playoffs, through the playoffs and now get to see them do it in one moment to do your best work and rise to the occasion is very exciting.
“But once that green flag drops, there is nothing Chad can do any more and nothing I can do any more.
“At that moment, it’s in their hands and you go along for the ride and hope it’s a good one.”