Of the three crew chiefs vying for the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup title, only Chad Knaus has ever won a Cup championship.
Now, the good thing for Mike Ford, crew chief for the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team of Denny Hamlin, and Gil Martin, crew chief for the No. 29 Richard Childress Racing team of Kevin Harvick, is that they both work for organizations that have won championships in the past.
In fact, if you look at the numbers of Joe Gibbs Racing, they are on the verge of their fourth Sprint Cup championship with their third team. If you remember, the No. 18 car with Bobby Labonte behind the wheel won a championship and, naturally, Tony Stewart won two crowns driving the No. 20.
Taking that a step further, Mike Ford was at Robert Yates Racing in 1999 when Dale Jarrett won his championship. My point is, Mike Ford knows about winning championships. I just have to tell you, I have been so impressed with Mike, Denny Hamlin and that entire No. 11 team. You would never know they haven’t won a championship before.
In fact, if you listen to Denny talk about their experience, he has said they have four years of experience in how to lose the championship. What’s been the difference this year is they have had a game plan and they have stuck to their game plan.
A lot of people think they are very cocky. They aren’t cocky, they are just very confident in what they are doing. I mean let’s face it, if you aren’t confident in what you are doing, how is anyone else going to be?
They had pinpointed that if they wanted to win the championship, they needed to come out of Texas as the points leader. Well, guess what? They are. So, best I can tell, their game plan is spot on.
Now Martin, Harvick’s crew chief, hasn’t won a championship. Kevin Harvick has in the Nationwide Series as a driver and the Truck series as an owner. Obviously, everyone is well aware of the championships Richard Childress Racing has won.
So I don’t think it’s necessarily about who has or hasn’t won as a crew chief, but more the organization around them.
The biggest thing about Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus is they never sit still. They have done an unbelievable job of not resting on their laurels. Even when they are really good, they are trying to come up with ways to be better. The same can be said for the other two teams.
Why should we be surprised that the teams of Johnson, Hamlin and Harvick are coming down to the wire neck and neck? These are the same three teams that have been battling it out over the entire 2010 season. Think about this: There have been 34 races so far this season, and between those three teams, they have won 17 races.
Now more than ever I think this is Hamlin’s championship to lose. Harvick is in the third spot, 59 points back. That’s still a pretty tall order.
Don’t get me wrong, it is not so much the 59 points, although Kevin will have to make up 30 points a race over Denny.
The bigger issue is Kevin is going to have to leap-frog over the two best teams in the garage area. That’s his biggest challenge.
