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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
VENTURINI: ‘Real Deal’ With Chad Knaus
SPEED’s Wendy Venturini talks to Chad Knaus on this week's edition of “Real Deal”…
Wendy Venturini  |  Posted October 19, 2009   Charlotte, NC
SPEED's Wendy Venturini. (Image: SPEED)

SPEED’s Wendy Venturini talks to Chad Knaus, crew chief for the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy for this weeks “Real Deal”…

Chad Knaus: "I bring a level of passion to it that is more than a job. I really think the guys feed off that. It’s something that I care deeply about and I want to be successful at."

Wendy Venturini: "All right, Jimmie Johnson is the face of the team but we’re here to talk to you about you, as a three-time champion what makes a Chad Knaus kick?"

Chad Knaus: "Oh, boy, I don’t really know. Honestly it’s racing, I love it. I’ve never done anything else. It’s my heart, my soul, my passion. This whole team and what we’ve got Hendrick Motorsports means more than anything I’ve got."

Wendy Venturini: "Even in your tire changing days you were always an intense guy."

Chad Knaus: "Hi, I’m Chad Knaus the rear tire changer. He’s coming down pit road and you’re still getting ready to get on the wall. You don’t center your hoses, your guns and tires. You just got to be on your game."

Wendy Venturini: "How would you describe yourself as a competitor?"

Chad Knaus: "Pretty intense for sure, I think that I enjoy going to the racetrack and trying to win races and once you win the race, it almost goes away and you’re ready to go to the next race because it’s a high. It is an adrenaline rush that you can’t, it almost happens before the victory. It’s getting the victory or anticipation of and that’s what I love."

Chad Knaus: (on radio to team)"The key is going to be for us to stay on top of the game, do everything right, get all our lug nuts, doing all that stuff that will keep us here and get us in the solid top 5 at the end of the day."

Wendy Venturini: "How do you think the guys on the crew would describe you as a leader?"

Chad Knaus: "I hope in a favorable way."

Ron Malec (Car Chief #48) : "At first I would probably call him high strung but there was a lot of pressure on us to do well at the beginning and as the seasons went on and we all learned and we all got more confident with each other, things got better."

Mike Knauer (catch can man #48) : "Intense"

Wendy Venturini: "That’s the word I hear."

Mike Knauer (catch can man #48) : "He just has that unwilling desire not to quit, never give up attitude."

Chad Knaus: "I mean are I think they see my intensity. I am intense for sure. I continuously try to push them and make them strive to get better."

Chad Knaus (on radio to team) : "All right, boys. Come on now, tighten up, not good not good.

Chad Knaus: "I wouldn’t be where I’m at without my team. And I challenged everybody to get just a little better and I think what that does is forces you to get better and if everybody is trying to evolve and rise to the case, that just makes everybody stronger altogether. As long as they understand what I’m trying to do, it’s all good."

Mike Knauer: (Catch Can Man #48) "He has got a longer fuse now and I think that comes with age."

Chad Knaus: "I don’t care who does it, I just want both adjustments."

Wendy Venturini: "It takes you longer to go off now. You might have been a little high strung at first."

Chad Knaus: "I was, there’s no doubt about that. I was very hot tempered and high strung, and very antsy to get things done. Over the course of the years you learn. You learn that you can’t always have the results that you want immediately. It takes time. You have to consider people’s emotions and not everybody dedicates their life to this team in the manner that I do, which is fine because you can’t have everybody doing it the same way that I do or Ron Malec does. They have to have their free time for families and stuff."

Ron Malec (Car Chief #48) : "Traveling on the road every week takes a toll on you and your family life. So I’m still not married, so I probably don’t have that issue right now."

Chad Knaus: "For a while I didn’t understand that. Being single, not having children, and a lot of family in the area all I do is work and I didn’t understand why everybody else didn’t have that same commitment and as I’ve grown up and matured a little bit and Mr. Hendrick taught me a lot, you begin to realize how important that is to the normal person’s everyday life. They have to have that balance. It is like I say a team that stays together wins together and I think that’s the kind of the mentality we’ve had and it has worked for us."

Wendy Venturini: "It definitely has worked for Chad Knaus and the 48 team. I’ve known Chad for several years. Long before he was a famous crew chief at Hendrick, Back in the day, when he was just as intense as he is today. Now you heard from his crew guys he has matured over the years. But he is the man behind this driver, Jimmie Johnson, the man that turns the wrenches and makes the calls on pit road for this team and has been the only crew chief to have three consecutive championships."

SOURCE: SPEED/Edited by Michael Pomeroy and Greg Engle

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