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Jimmy Johnson NASCAR

February 19, 2012 by · Comments Off on Jimmy Johnson NASCAR 

Jimmy Johnson NASCAR, Five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus are back in the spotlight at one of racing’s biggest stages — and not for the right reason.

NASCAR confiscated part of their Daytona 500 car Friday because of illegal modifications, a rocky start to Speedweeks for a team trying to bounce back from its worst season.

Sprint Cup Series officials determined the No. 48 Chevrolet had illegally modified C-posts, an area of sheet metal between the roof and the side windows. It could lead to penalties for Knaus and the team.

Officials cut off the C-posts and planned to ship them to NASCAR’s research and development center in Concord, N.C., for further testing. In the meantime, the parts in question were put on display for other teams to examine, a routine procedure for the sanctioning body.

NASCAR allowed the Hendrick Motorsports team to fix that area of the car before practice begins for the Feb. 26 Daytona 500. Qualifying is scheduled for Sunday.

“Well, it’s a hell of a way to start the 2012 season,” said Ken Howes, vice president of competition at Hendrick Motorsports. “But the car obviously failed inspection and NASCAR has directed us how they want it fixed and we’re busy doing that. We’re waiting on some parts to arrive and we’ll put it back together and run it through inspection again.”

The No. 48 team could be fined, docked points or both following the series’ premier event.

“There’s always a potential, but we’ll just wait until after Speedweeks is over with,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition.

Knaus has been caught cheating before.

Most notably, he was ejected before the 2006 Daytona 500 after NASCAR found illegal modifications following a qualifying session. Last season, Knaus was caught on camera telling Johnson that if he won at Talladega he needed to “crack the back of the car,” apparently to build an explanation in case the car did not pass post-race inspection. Nothing came of that situation.

Knaus has been fined and penalized several other times, too.

Jimmie Johnson Nascar

October 10, 2011 by · Comments Off on Jimmie Johnson Nascar 

Jimmie Johnson NascarJimmie Johnson Nascar, He’s baaaack! Jimmie Johnson answered all the questions about their willingness to fight for a sixth consecutive Sprint Cup with a dominating performance Sunday at Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway 400.

Johnson held a strong charge Kasey Kahne in a final green-white-checkered broken engine created by Jeff Gordon on lap 265. Kahne beat Johnson to the finish line by .548 seconds in a race that went five laps beyond its scheduled distance of 267 laps.

The victory was Johnson’s second season, the 55th of his career and 20 in 74 races in the Chase races. He left Kansas tied with Rusty Wallace in the eighth on the list of all-time Cup win. NASCAR.com

“We have a very strong group of guys, and we’ve been knocking on the door throughout the year,” said Johnson. “We got beat in some cases, and at other times they beat us. Today, we went out there and did a great job. We have the car to victory.”

He also won on this track of 1.5 miles per second.

Johnson sat tenth in the championship after New Hampshire, two weeks ago, but has since climbed to third in the standings, just four points behind new leader Carl Edwards.

“I am very happy with the way the team is clicking right now,” said crew chief Chad Knaus Johnson. “Jimmie is doing a really good job. The guys are doing a great job on pit road.” MiamiHerald.com

The win was also the 199th victory of Johnson’s car owner, Rick Hendrick.

“This sport is so hard, look in all places second we have this year (four),” said Johnson. “We’ve been around but just do not have the job done. We are very pleased to get the victory makes today.

“We did our job today and hopefully we can do it six times.”

Kahne, 16th in points, challenged Johnson in the final race, finishing two laps but could not overtake the No. 48.

“I thought if I could get a good restart would have a chance, because my tires were a little cooler than yours,” said Kahne. “Jimmie was the car to beat every day that I realized, so I knew I was going to be quick once it started.”

Brad Keselowski, who won at Kansas Speedway in June and the winner in the Nationwide Series event on Saturday, finished third.

Matt Kenseth finished fourth, while Carl Edwards mounted a furious charge to fifth place after running back into the pack and falling a lap down in the previous race.

Kansas Edwards left with the points lead of a front of Kevin Harvick.

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