NASCAR stars align as Hall of Fame inducts Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus, Donnie Allison

Before they’d ever lined up for a race, Jimmie Johnson felt he was onto something with Chad Knaus.

Ahead of the 2002 season, Hendrick Motorsports decided to establish a fourth team. Knaus, a young tire changer and fabricator in the shop, had expressed interest in becoming a crew chief, even telling Hall of Famer Ray Evernham that he eventually wanted his job during their initial interview.

Johnson, a young California native who was starting to break into NASCAR, was impressing on and off the track, and Rick Hendrick had met him through his son, Ricky. It wasn’t the lengthiest of interview processes, and Johnson was paired with Knaus to form Hendrick’s new No. 48 team.

The rest was history.

Johnson and Knaus won seven Cup Series championships together during an illustrious 18-year run that included five Cup titles in a row — a NASCAR record — from 2006 to 2010. Along with longtime driver and ambassador Donnie Allison, they received their sport’s highest honor Friday night, joining NASCAR’s greatest icons in its Hall of Fame in uptown Charlotte.

“This is the highest honor, to stand alongside our sport’s greats,” Johnson said in his speech at Charlotte Convention Center. “This success story of seven championships, 83 wins and now this is all about relationships. I’m truly grateful for the journey.”

Johnson’s 83 wins have come on 20 different tracks at the Cup level. He’s won multiple times at every crown jewel event: twice at the Daytona 500, four Coca-Cola 600s, four times at Indianapolis’ Brickyard 400, a pair of Southern 500s and four All-Star Race victories.

Now the owner of Legacy Motor Club, which will field John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones in the Cup Series this year, Johnson started his Cup career in 2002. He retired at age 44, in 2020, but has continued racing in different series, including part-time at the Cup level in Legacy Motor Club’s No. 84 Toyota Camry.

“‘Chad.’ ‘Jimmie.’ Where’s the sponsor? ‘Lowes.’ Boom! It just all seemed to magically come together,” four-time Cup champion and Hendrick vice chairman Jeff Gordon recalled Friday. “Stinking up the show on a regular basis. I mean, the five in a row? That will never be done again. It just won’t.”

‘This is beyond my wildest dreams’

On Christmas morning in 1979, a 4-year-old Jimmie Johnson woke up to a motorcycle sitting next to the tree in their Southern California home.

His love for racing began right there. His parents already loved the sport and gave him everything they could. But it wasn’t easy for Gary, a heavy equipment operator, or Catherine, a school bus driver.

“My first day in North Carolina looked like this: I secured a P.O. box, a local cell phone number and a box of business cards,” Johnson said. “I was even bold enough to put ‘professional racecar driver’ across the bottom of the cards. I passed them out all over Mooresville.”

Johnson made connections everywhere he went, including meeting a Chevrolet official at an off-road race when he was 15. He transitioned from off-road racing to stock cars and ran at the Xfinity level before his Cup career began in 2002.

“This is beyond my wildest dreams,” Johnson said to end his speech. “And I thought Christmas morning in 1979 was special.”

A young Chad Knaus cold-called Hendrick Motorsports

Knaus grew up in Rockford, Ill., attending Rockford Speedway and other Midwest tracks with his father. One of his best friends gave him $1,000 to move to North Carolina and pursue a career in racing.

He packed everything he owned — which “wasn’t much more than a clothing basket, and a motorcycle, and a black-and-white TV” — into a U-Haul trailer behind a station wagon. His first gig was with driver Stanley Smith, a Chelsea, Ala., native who competed in 28 Cup races from 1990-93.

Knaus vividly remembers being in the Atlanta garage with Smith’s No. 49 team during Jeff Gordon’s first career race. He noticed Gordon’s No. 24 team had these brand-new toolboxes, clean uniforms, and meanwhile, here he was, a grungy young man just hoping his driver’s team would even make the race.

He was determined to work with a team of that caliber. And, in June 1993, he called Hendrick Motorsports himself.

“Receptionist picked up. I said: ‘May I speak to Ray Evernham?’” Knaus explained in his speech. “She said: ‘sure, just one moment.’”

“I don’t think that works anymore, just so you guys know,” Knaus said with a laugh.

Next thing he knew, Knaus was explaining who he was and his goal of becoming a crew chief. Evernham seemed like he was in a rush, but surprisingly said a crew chief actually had just left — and asked Knaus if he could be in Charlotte the next day for an interview.

Knaus told his boss in Alabama that he needed to take the next day off because his “grandmother was sick,” and he drove up to Charlotte and slept in his car. He woke up early and used the melted ice from a fountain drink in his cup holder to rinse off his mouth and brush his hair.

After a lengthy conversation, Evernham asked him where he saw himself in five years. Knaus paused and then confidently told Evernham he wanted his job. He started later that year and was eventually paired with Johnson.

Knaus, who currently serves as Hendrick’s vice president of competition, became one of the greatest crew chiefs NASCAR has ever seen. He helped Johnson to those seven titles, which famously tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most in series history, and won his 82nd and final race with William Byron in 2020.

Donnie Allison enters Hall of Fame

Each year, Hall of Fame voters are presented with 15 nominees: 10 from the “Modern Era” ballot and five “Pioneers.” Allison was elected from the pioneer side, which is intended to honor those whose careers began more than 60 years ago.

Allison was known as a member of the “Alabama Gang,” with Red Farmer, Neil Bonnett, his brother, Bobby, and father, Davey. The collection of drivers hails from Hueytown, Ala., and Allison joked in the fireside chat that “Birmingham is a suburb of Hueytown, not the other way around.” Hueytown’s main thoroughfare is named Allison-Bonnett Memorial Drive.

Donnie Allison, now 84, was the 1967 Cup Series Rookie of the Year. The 10-time race winner played an instrumental role in the sport’s early growth and made headlines in 1979 after a Daytona 500 dust-up with Cale Yarborough.

“Ken Squier, so neatly, spoke about ‘fought.’ I never fought,” Allison said in his speech, eliciting some laughs. “I don’t care — I never touched the man, he never touched me. If he had, I’d had probably killed him.”

Allison thanked many of his family members and racing peers throughout a 20-minute speech that kicked off Friday night’s ceremony. An ambassador for the sport for more than 50 years, Allison shared a story about when he had 12-year-old Joey Logano, now a two-time Cup champion, strap into an Allison legacy car in Anderson, S.C., and sensed his passion at a young age.

Who else did NASCAR honor Friday night?

Janet Guthrie, who in 1976 became the first woman to compete in a NASCAR Cup Series superspeedway race, was honored as the recipient of the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR.

Shav Glick, the late Los Angeles Times motorsports reporter for 37 years, was recognized as the winner of the Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence.