Chad Knaus (Left) said the No. 48 team can improve and Rick Hendrick (Right) says the teams are still hungry for wins in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

For his part, Knaus said there’s still a lot of room for the No. 48 team to improve, a truly scary thought given their achievements over the last four years.

“We can be a lot better,” he said flatly. “There were a lot of races this year that we had missed opportunities. There are a lot of areas on the race team that we need improve upon, including myself. We’re striving to get better. I’ve got a long list of things that I’m going to do personally. Jimmie and I were actually talking yesterday about some things I think he can do to improve his ability. We’re working on our pit crew constantly. So there’s a lot of areas that we’re working on very diligently to get better for 2010.”

Asked if there are any areas he was satisfied with the team, Knaus said, “I’m never satisfied. No. To not progress in this industry, you’re going to be in trouble. It is so competitive out there right now that you continuously have to get better every event. That’s the thing about that I think a lot of people don’t understand: We try to get better every week. There’s not a race we go to where we’re not doing something different, something to try to improve our product, improve our team, improve our driver. We’re always trying to get better.”

Knaus did allow a little insight to Johnson’s success this year: pressure from Martin and Gordon.

“Honestly, what made us as good as what we were this year was because the 5 (Martin) and the 24 (Gordon) ran so well,” said Knaus. “It made us get better, because the last thing you want to do is get beat by your brother. If you’re going to go out and play basketball on Christmas Eve or Thanksgiving, and you’re going to play a game of horse, you don’t want to lose to your brother, right? That’s the most competitive environment you’ll ever be in, and that’s the way it is at Hendrick Motorsports. As much as we love each other and we want to work together and we strive to get better and raise the productivity of the whole organization, you want to be the best in the family. That drives us all.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of "Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED," and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to