Johnny Benson

There’s little mystery as to why Jimmie Johnson won a third consecutive Cup title – a feat that hasn’t been accomplished in 30 years.

When it comes to winning championships, Johnson has all of what it takes to finish on top: tremendous talent, an exceptional crew chief, a superior organization, the ability to drive virtually mistake-free and the perfect disposition to deal with the highs and lows of a 36-race season. 

Even though a red-hot Carl Edwards led a race-high 157 laps to win the Nov. 16th season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Johnson's solid 15th-place run was enough to best Edwards by 69 points for the title.

Johnson joins Cale Yarborough as the only drivers in NASCAR history to win three straight Cup titles. Yarborough did it 30 years ago, under a different scoring system and in a very different NASCAR.Johnson has the kind of talent behind the wheel that has seen him finish no lower than fifth in the standings every season since he started racing full time on the Cup circuit in 2002. To many in NASCAR, it was never a question of whether the El Cajon, Calif. native would win a Cup championship, it was a just a matter of when.

Johnson does his level best every time he gets on the track but he’d be the first to tell you that all-out efforts on his part don’t alone result in trips to Victory Lane. There’s more to his unmatched success than just his superb driving.

Figuring prominently into why Johnson is so hard to beat is his employer, Hendrick Motorsports, and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, who has done the best job of anybody in a long time to fully utilize the vast resources of the organization that is also home to four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon.

Rick Hendrick is an owner who set out to build the dominant organization in Cup racing. He brought aboard Gordon full time in 1993 and showed no hesitation to go deep into his pockets to provide his rising star with whatever resources were necessary to reach the goal of winning a championship – something Gordon did for the first time in 1995. He would take the title again in 1997, 1998 and 2001.

Special feature 2008 season review Take an in-depth look at each of NASCAR's top-12 drivers in 2008.

Through the years Hendrick Motorsports evolved to reach the pinnacle of the sport and all of what was learned and developed and improved upon for Gordon and the company’s other drivers over the years has served to benefit Johnson in his championship seasons. When it comes to races and titles won, the common denominator for Johnson and Gordon is Hendrick Motorsports, a company that is deep in resources and manpower and is never asleep at the switch in the ever changing world of NASCAR racing.

Knaus’ history with Hendrick Motorsports started with a stint last decade of five years working his way up with Gordon’s team. Remember Gordon’s original Rainbow Warriors pit crew, well Knaus was a tire changer for that group. He left Hendrick Motorsports at the end of 1997 with his sights set on becoming a crew chief, something he eventually achieved with Melling Racing and driver Stacy Compton. But in 2002 he returned to Hendrick Motorsports becoming Johnson’s crew chief and that was the start of the double-barreled slingshot that began picking off competitors one by one on the track and in the standings.

Special feature 2008 winners Take a look at every Sprint Cup Series trip to victory lane this season.

Knaus and Johnson have terrific chemistry. There’s a ton of trust between them and that helps generate the ample confidence both bring to their roles on the No. 48 Chevrolet. Perhaps most importantly in their relationship is their great communication. They have a tremendous strength in relaying information throughout races and that’s why even on days when they appear up to their necks in issues on a struggling car they almost always find a way to pull out a solid finish.

A key reason why this driver-crew chief combination contends for and wins championships is that they are never satisfied with where they are running in a race (unless it’s in front, of course). They always feel they can improve on how they are doing. Somehow, some way they believe they can find some more speed and they so often do.

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