Richmond will be a great challenge

California was not as sweet the second time around for Team Lowe’s. The moment we unloaded Friday morning, the Lowe’s Chevy was not how we needed it to be. The crew did a great job of refusing to settle for an average race car all weekend, and for 247 laps Sunday, it seemed like we were going to at least have a top 10 finish, if not a top 5.

For the fourth time this season, we had an incident that cost us a top 10 in the final laps of the race. Jimmie Johnson said it best when he said we have some sort of monkey on our backs when it comes to the end of a race. But with all the things that have had happen to us this season -- the blown engine and late lap spins -- we are still in fifth place overall and only 207 points out of first.

In fact, we’re only a little less than 60 points out of third. So, as bad as we might be feeling right now, we are still putting ourselves in the right position to win races and compete for the 2003 Winston Cup championship.

Richmond International Raceway is a great challenge for Team Lowe’s coming off of California Speedway. It is a track that Jimmie had very little success on in his Busch career (12th is his best finish at Richmond in a Busch car) and his Cup stats aren’t a good indication of how well he is actually running there (13th is his best finish in a Cup car).

He was battling for the lead in the spring race at Richmond before an accident caused us to go behind the wall. For the second race, we took the pole and Jimmie ran a great race. Unfortunately for the team, we got caught in a weird pit cycle and we were forced to pit with only a few laps remaining for fuel and settled for a top 15 finish.

What those stats won’t show you is that Jimmie is getting a solid feel for this track and the team is providing him with great race cars, so if our information transfers over with the new body style, we should be in great shape for Saturday’s race.

Keys to success at Richmond International Raceway
Driver	Jimmie needs to be on his game and mentally prepared for a long day. Short tracks get rough and emotions get high, so he will have to concentrate on his makes and keep his wits about him for us to have success.
Qualifying	It’s hard to come from the back at Richmond, so we’ll need to have a strong qualifying session and start at the front. With a strong qualifying, we'll get a strong pit position.
Brakes	This track just eats brakes. Drivers run so hard there and they have to get on the brakes so hard in the turns, so it will be very important to take care of the brakes and the equipment for the entire race. The team that usually takes care of its equipment is usually there to battle for the win at the end of the race.

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.

 

Related information

Stories

Previous Chad Knaus Columns Wallace hopes to turn fortunes around at Richmond B. Duane Cross: Cope has unique sponsorship plan Ricky Rudd Around the Track: Richmond is for racers Robby Gordon Mailbag: Rally World? Maybe in the future

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video