Citius, altius, fortius

A fast, high-horsepower, durable engine needed to win at Atlanta

Jimmie Johnson finished second behind teammate Jeff Gordon at Martinsville. Robert Laberge/Getty Images

Team Lowe's was on its game last Sunday! We struggled all weekend trying to get the racecar setup for Jimmie and as the times showed, we couldn't find it during practice. On Saturday night, after chatting with Jimmie, we decided to go with a basic setup very similar to Jeff Gordon's. As evident with the race results, it worked for us. Jimmie was able to drive from the middle of the field to the front, and then because of a spin, he drove it from the rear of the field back to the front again.

This race team continues to impress me. The guys continue to work hard when things aren't going right. When we could have easily been second-guessing ourselves and questioning what we were doing, no one did. Everyone stuck together and kept working hard -- that's a sign of a team. And as a reward for their hard work, we posted our 10th top-five finish of the season, that is four more than last season.

Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS) is one of the fastest tracks, especially in qualifying. Jimmie and many of the drivers will hit speeds in excess of 200 mph on this 1.5-mile high-banked oval. While we haven't had great qualifying efforts there, Jimmie has been able to run up front in a few races. Unfortunately, we only have one top-five out of four races there and that came in our first race at AMS last season.

We've experienced our fair share of troubles at AMS, including an engine failure while we were running in the top-five with 20 laps to go in the spring that put us behind the wall. And last fall, we just had a really loose race setup that we hoped would tighten up with the track just a little, but the sun never came out and Jimmie was stuck with a race car half of the field couldn't have kept on the track. Jimmie spun out twice, but was able to finish 22nd.

Jimmie knows how to get around the place, so we just need to find the right setup and make sure our equipment is solid and dependable. If we have that, we should be in good position to finish in the top-10 or even in the top-five.

Chad Knaus is the crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Hendrick Motorsports. His column will appear weekly on SI.com.