Robert Lesieur / Reuters

Jimmie Johnson may well be celebrating additional Cup championships in the future, writes Johnny Benson of MSNBC.com.

Sharing in success
How teams function in racing organizations is always of interest to fans who presume at least somewhat of a conflict in that each team is trying to gain a competitive edge but they all are also pooling their information. At Hendrick Motorsports the teams share virtually everything. Gordon's crew chief, Steve Letarte, says it's a complete open book. That's the way owner Rick Hendrick wants it and so that's the way it's done.

Knaus, Letarte and the other two crew chiefs at Hendrick Motorsports make this work. From the first race of the season to the last they're communicating and swapping information. On a racing weekend the sharing includes air pressures during the race, setup information, and pit strategies. And even in the Chase with a championship to be won, there is no reduction in this level of cooperation.

While sharing information is one thing, it's important to point out that even with the teams having the same data at hand, their cars are not carbon copies of each other. They are different because each driver has his own style of racing and his car's setup needs to reflect that. Also, each car has its own personality so what works in one may not work in the other.

Hendrick's model for cooperation among its teams has been put to the test and has passed with flying colors. Johnson had a tremendous Chase, especially the second half of it. He won four of the last five races, and he didn't finish worse than 14th, and had six top-five finishes. Gordon had nine top-10 results in the 10-race Chase and 30 top-10s on the season. Of the two other Hendrick drivers, Kyle Busch made the Chase and placed fifth although he's leaving the organization to make room for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2008. Casey Mears finished 15th in the Nextel Cup point standings.

A new ride in bid for a three-peat
This season's finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway marked the last race for NASCAR's conventional car. Next year all races will be run in the Car of Tomorrow. That puts some additional pressure on Knaus -- on top of the pressure he'll be feeling as Johnson goes for a third straight championship. Knaus really enjoyed working on the conventional car and was impressed by the way it evolved over the last 10 years. So the change to the COT is not something he welcomes.

Knaus feels the COT will hurt crew chiefs like himself because it severely lessens the creative impact they can have on their cars. There's no doubt that will be the case. The COT will take 95 percent of the creativity and ingenuity away from the crew chiefs and chassis builders. More focus will be put on the drivers, less on the crew chiefs and teams. When NASCAR makes things tighter and puts its teams in a smaller box over what they can and can't do the bigger organizations gain an even greater advantage over the smaller operations.

This season Johnson's team was helped by Gordon's team in the transition to the COT, which was used in 16 races. Gordon has taken to the COT well. He has a tremendous feel for what it is doing and how the car handles when the weight is transferring. Early in the season Knaus and Johnson grew somewhat frustrated with the COT. There to help them were Gordon and Letarte, who got them going in the right direction.

Hendrick Motorsports will always be out front in adapting to change given all the money it is able to bring in through sponsorships. It will be on the leading edge for many years to come. It will be difficult for other organizations to catch up. A key is Hendrick Motorsports has always been able to mover faster than other organizations when new changes are mandated by NASCAR. So while the COT may not be the car of choice for Johnson and Knaus as they seek a three-peat, they'll have plenty of help from the organization in getting it to perform as well for them as the conventional car did.