700 races, seven Cup Series championships, and 83 Victory Lane visits in 22 years. Jimmie Johnson’s journey with Hendrick Motorsports is the type of legend that little children go to sleep hearing with a wondrous glint in their eyes. But it ought not to be forgotten that his tale would not have become what it is if not for a loyal friend, companion, and crew chief in Chad Knaus.

When Johnson signed with Rick Hendrick’s organization, he was poised to be their fourth driver. He mentioned in a recent conversation with Before The Lights that the No. 48 team was already filled with the energy of young talent and ambition before he made it in. And once he walked through the doors, that energy only went up through the roof.

Johnson said, “Whatever energy or vibe was there, we created it. There was so much ownership in it, and man, we did so much in a short period of time.” He continued to explain that a core group of people had surrounded him throughout his career, and the continual relationship he had with them is the biggest reason for his success.

The most important of them all is Knaus. Knaus and Johnson worked together as driver and crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports. They won five consecutive championships from 2006 to 2010, and two more after that. Johnson looked back at their time together and could only be grateful to the man for everything he’d done.

“But there’s one man that really led the team for all that (time we were together),” he said, referring to Knaus. “17 of my 19 full-time years, and he’s like a — I guess I have two younger brothers — he’s like a fourth or third brother to me.” Despite their success together and Johnson’s tryst with continuity, he couldn’t end his career with Knaus as his crew chief.

He added, “Unfortunately, we got to a point where we spent more time fighting, and our team owner had to say, ‘Alright. Enough of you guys. I’m going to have to separate you.’ I wish we could have made it those final two years together before I moved on to IndyCar. But people and consistency have been the bottom line for my success.”

The pain of separation was healed when they were both inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame together as a part of the Class of 2024. It was the perfect culmination of their long and storied partnership in the Cup Series. They remain close friends to this day.

Carson Hocevar was once again in the middle of controversy in Mexico City. The fast, but highly aggressive driver was involved in a few incidents including another run-in with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s No. 47 Chevrolet.

To make the situation worse, Hocevar was a lap down when he spun Stenhouse out. After the race, Stenhouse confronted Hocevar and said “I’m gonna beat your ass” when they return to the United States. The two drivers have not interacted since then.

No conversations

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet

“No, unfortunately,” said Hocevar when asked if the two have talked this week. “I’m not sure what I could what I would say, right? You know, there’s nothing that really would change it, right? We’ve already had that conversation.

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“I feel like we have a good relationship or, you know, had one. I was just running behind him, just kind of logging laps and, you know, just locked up in a very dumb spot. And it was just so dumb, really. Just a mistake that didn’t need to happen and didn’t want it to happen. But there’s nothing that I could do or say. You know, I can’t buy him a Hallmark card and, you know, really make things better. So, it sucks. It sucks for me because he’s the only NASCAR driver that owns a sprint car team, and I love sprint cars. So it sucks because I want to go talk to him about sprint cars. So, yeah, hopefully everything can be set, but I know that the scorecard has me ahead right now, unfortunately.”

It’s not open hunting season

Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Hocevar does expect Stenhouse to get him back. After wrecking the No. 47 at Nashville, the two drivers talked things out, but it’s clear that there’s no mending things through a simple conversation anymore. Hocevar qualified third for the Cup race at Pocono while Stenhouse will start 30th.

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“The scorecard has it that I’m getting something from the 47 [Stenhouse] at some point, right? And I think my team and everybody kind of knows that. But at the same time, it’s ideally just the 47, right? It’s not an open hunting season on the 77 [Hocevar] because of these incidents. You know, it’s kind of oscillated to, you know, when the 47 has a moment that he wants to take at us or take a shot. It’s just like — OK, you know, that’s probably fair.

“But with everybody else, my team has reassured me that this isn’t open hunting season.  We are going to race like we’ve raced, let’s just not create more enemies that we start getting shots back at us. But, you know, we’re still just going to go race, be aggressive and defend ourselves when we need to. But this is kind of, unfortunately, now a ‘two to nothing’ scorecard. I’ve been a fan of the sport for a long time. You know the game; you’ve seen it and everything. But we just go race.”

Accepting whatever happens

Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Hocevar has no idea when payback is coming, or if Stenhouse will even use his car to settle the score…or his fists. But either way, the Spire Motorsports driver said he’s going to accept whatever happens.

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“It could be tomorrow or it could be six months from now,” said Hocevar. “It would be very hypocritical for me to then lose my mind and be frustrated. I’ve been a fan for a very long time. You’ve seen these stories before. It’s not, by no means, the first time. So, hopefully, for my sake, it doesn’t happen and we can race, and if I need to, you know, we can point it by whatever. But I know how frustrated I was that I brought this back up because I thought we were good. And I let him go because I was a lap down or whatever, and I was just riding behind him and then I locked up. You live in the world you make for yourself, and this is the world I’ve made.”

The Stenhouse situation isn’t the only dark cloud over Hocevar, who also faced internal penalties this week from his team, Spire Motorsports. He called Mexico a “s***hole” in some comments on Twitch, resulting in a $50,000 and mandatory sensitivity training. Reacting to those comments, he said in a Saturday press conference that his comments were “based off everything else, you know, that I’ve heard or seen, right? I didn’t go do my own homework and voice my own opinion.

“I didn’t give it a shot. I didn’t give it a chance. I didn’t go walk around. I didn’t go see it. When I did, you know, then hindsight’s 20/20, then I have my own opinion. But I’ve already put it out there. So I think that was the biggest thing was like — I wasn’t doing what I pride myself of doing. I was just having my own opinion, putting it out there and being me. You know, I just didn’t give it a fair shot, so I think that’s where it all stems from.”

Photos from Pocono – Practice & Qualifying

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Chris Buescher, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

Brennan Poole, Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

Kyle Busch, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

AJ Allmendinger, Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Riley Herbst, 23XI Racing Toyota

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

Brad Keselowski, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing Toyota

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Kyle Busch, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing Toyota

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

Austin Cindric, Team Penske Ford

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Kyle Busch, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Ryan Preece, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Zane Smith, Front Row Motorsports Ford

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Chris Buescher, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Todd Gilliland, Front Row Motorsports Ford

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Daniel Suarez, Trackhouse Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

Daniel Suarez, Trackhouse Chevrolet

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Zane Smith, Front Row Motorsports Ford

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Chase Briscoe, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

Noah Gragson, Front Row Motorsports Ford

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Chase Briscoe, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Daniel Suarez, Trackhouse Chevrolet

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

Erik Jones, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing Toyota

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

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Read Also:

Carson Hocevar fined for making insensitive comments about Mexico

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. threatens Carson Hocevar: “I’m gonna beat your ass”

Carson Hocevar will try to “round the edges off” after clashing with rivals

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.

LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — Dale Earnhardt Jr. might already be NASCAR’s most popular crew chief.

He’s certainly an undefeated one.

Pressed into unexpected service, Earnhardt called the shots for 18-year-old prospect Connor Zilisch in the No. 88 Chevrolet and they landed in victory lane Saturday in the second-tier Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway.

“It felt good to have some input and decision-making power,” Earnhardt said. “And then helping Connor understand what our plan was so he knew when to push and what he was expected to do.”

Earnhardt — who won NASCAR’s most-popular driver award 15 times — made a pit stop from his day job as team owner at JR Motorsports with normal crew chief Mardy Lindley suspended one race because of a lug nut infraction this month at Nashville.

Aside from his duties as team owner, Earnhardt also was at Pocono for his role on the Prime broadcast for the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday.

“Lot of fun for me today,” Earnhardt said. “I missed the thrill of competition. I love broadcast, don’t get me wrong. But nothing compares to driving or just being part of the team. Being an owner doesn’t really deliver like this. This is a lot of fun.”

Earnhardt had his wife and two young daughters in tow with him as he made the celebratory walk to victory lane. Oldest daughter Isla Rose clutched the checkered flag while youngest Nicole Lorraine soaked in the scene from her dad’s arms.

“I love that they just get to experience things about NASCAR,” Earnhardt said. “I had such a great time growing up as a kid in this sport, just running around here. I want them to have that opportunity and understand that this is a place where they could create opportunities for themselves down the road.”

The win continued a banner season for the NASCAR Hall of Fame driver — who swept two races at Pocono as a driver in 2014 — after JR Motorsports and reigning Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier qualified for the season-opening Daytona 500 and secured their Cup Series debut.

Earnhardt won two Daytona 500s, in 2004 and 2014, and 26 races overall.

His side hustle Saturday was made a bit easier with Zilisch behind the wheel. Zilisch, who turns 19 in July, raced to his second Xfinity victory of the season and third of his young career. He won his Xfinity debut last year at Watkins Glen International.

Earnhardt even pitched in during the race and tossed tires over the wall during pit stops.

“Midway through the race man, I was feeling it,” Earnhardt said.

Zilisch took the win down to the wire and finally passed Jesse Love with five laps left in the race. Love finished second.

“Dale Junior, not too bad on the box,” Zilisch said. “Pretty cool to have him up there. Getting him a 1-for-1 win as crew chief is pretty awesome.”

Even with the victory, it just might be one-and-done on the pit box for Earnhardt.

“I don’t know that I see myself doing it again,” he said.

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

18-year-old Connor Zilisch earned his first oval win Saturday at Pocono Raceway, and he did it with help from ‘rookie’ crew chief and JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. atop the box. Zilisch made the pass for the win on Jesse Love with just a few laps to go before hanging on to capture the checkered flag.

“I’ve been dying for this one for a while now,” said Zilisch. “I know it hasn’t felt like that long but man, I’ve been so close on the ovals lately. I finished second at Charlotte, second at Nashville and yeah, Dale Jr.’s not so bad on the box. Pretty cool to have him up there. Thank you so much to the entire JR Motorsports team.

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About working with Dale Jr., Zilisch added: “It’s pretty funny, he [Earnhardt] was kicking me in the ass on some of those restarts, giving me some advice. The advice from him is advice well taken from me so it’s really cool to have him and get him 1-1 with a win as a crew chief. That’s pretty awesome as well. But yeah, Marty did everything right to set this car up as well and I wish he could have been on the box today.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., JR Motorsports Chevrolet

As for the winning crew chief, Earnhardt said of the experience:  “(Regular crew chief Mardy Lindley) did a great job putting us in a position to succeed and we had a lot of things go our way, a lot of good luck and great strategy. Had a little help from [Steve] Letarte up here … he was a big help. But everybody on this team, just amazing all weekend long. And one great race car driver in Connor Zilisch. He’s going to be a big deal in this sport for a long time. A lot of fun for me today.”

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Earnhardt continued: “I miss the thrill of competition. I love broadcasting, don’t get me wrong, but nothing compares to driving or just being part of the team. Being an owner doesn’t really deliver like this. It was a lot of fun.”

Christian Eckes ended up with a career-best finish of third, pole-sitter Chase Elliott in fourth, and Ryan Sieg fifth. Carson Kvapil, Sam Mayer, Sammy Smith, Taylor Gray, and Justin Allgaier filled out the remainder of the top ten.

The run to the finish

The NASCAR Xfinity race at Pocono featured a record ten cautions with various incidents throughout the 100-lap event. The final stage of the race started the way things ended up finishing with Zilisch leading Love, but a lot happened in those final 45 laps.

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As drivers worked to hit their fuel number, Zilisch stayed out until Elliott was about to run him down, diving to the pits. Earnhardt, who was already working as the crew chief, came down off the pit box to help as a tire catcher.

But before Elliott could respond, there was a caution for a single-car spin. That pushed Zilisch back to the lead and put Elliott on the second row for a restart with 25 laps to go. Elliott managed to get back to the race lead in time for the next restart, which came with 15 laps to go. But yet another incident forced the leaders to do it all over again.

While Elliott was strong on every restart, this one would not go his way. With 13 laps to go, he lined up alongside Allgaier. The reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion got sideways as the field entered Turn 1. He hit Elliott’s door and while both drivers managed to avoid an incident, they also lost several spots as the cars slid up the track.

This cleared the way for Love, who now led the race with just six laps to go. Zilisch gave him a friendly push clear of Eckes on what would be the final restart before taking the lead for himself soon after.

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While this is Zilisch’s first win on an oval, it is his third career win as a NASCAR Xfinity Series driver.

Read Also:

Denny Hamlin earns Pocono pole as William Byron wrecks in wild qualifying session

Here’s Chase Elliott’s theory on why he’s still winless in 2025

Carson Hocevar expects payback, admits “this is the world I’ve made”

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.

LONG POND — Pocono Raceway paints its signature black rocks outside the garage in gold lettering with a last name and race car number highlighted to honor some of NASCAR’s greats. Jimmie Johnson has one. So does Richard Petty, among others.

So where’s the celebratory boulder for Denny Hamlin, who holds the track record with seven wins and saw another victory thrown out in 2022 because of a disqualification?

Hamlin laughed when he said Pocono officials told him the requirement was, “either retire or die.”

At 44 years old, Hamlin — who just welcomed a son with fiancee Jordan Fish — should have the prime of his life ahead.

As for retirement? What, and miss out on all the fun?

Even without a Cup championship on his resume, Hamlin remains a dominant force in the sport and he showed again Saturday why he’s the driver to beat on the 2 1/2-mile tri-oval track. Hamlin skipped last week’s race in Mexico City after his son’s birth and returned without missing a beat, turning a lap of 172.599 mph to take the top spot in Sunday’s race.

“Truthfully, I’m on a run,” Hamlin said. “I don’t know how else to say it.”

Yes, life is good for Hamlin, especially after the couple welcomed their third child, Jameson Drew Hamlin, on June 11. Hamlin shared in a social media post that the baby was delivered at 8 pounds, 4 ounces and was measured at 22 3/4 inches. The name has special meaning: The three-time Daytona 500 champion’s given name is James Dennis Alan Hamlin. So his son’s name is for James’ son and the JD theme is for two men (JD Gibbs and James Dean) who helped launch his career path into NASCAR.

Hamlin said a difficult labor and the logistical issues of traveling on short notice to Mexico forced him to miss the race.

“If we were racing at Darlington,” he said, “I would have been there on race day.”

The layoff didn’t affect Hamlin. He earned his third NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and 57th of his career on June 8 at Michigan International Speedway and jumped right back into the top spot at Pocono.

Maybe some unexpected rest this week helped Hamlin crush it in the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

“He’s slept through the night the last three nights in a row. So it’s been really, really great,” Hamlin said.

If anything keeps Hamlin stirring at night, it’s the acrimonious legal fight with NASCAR that continues to drag in court.

A federal judge urged NASCAR and two of its teams to settle their lawsuit that spilled over into tense arguments during a hearing this week. 23XI Racing, which is owned by Hamlin and Michael Jordan, is fighting with NASCAR along with Front Row Motorsports. The two teams say the series is a monopoly, but NASCAR has struck back with a countersuit of its own.

Jeffrey Kessler, an attorney representing the teams, said he was open to a settlement. Hamlin said Saturday at Pocono he also was open to a settlement, but said no offer of one had been made on their side and wouldn’t be at least until there is a mediation attempt. Kessler said NASCAR was uninterested in a settlement.

“I have stated publicly cooler heads will prevail,” Hamlin said. “I can tell you this, this is not on our end that needs cooler heads. I think the difference is they’re saying different things on their side. We’re prepared to go all the way.”

Hamlin is going to try and go all the way and win at Pocono with his fifth pole in 36 races at the track.

Hamlin is the 5-1 betting favorite to win Sunday, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.

“It’s a track that no matter the car we drive or the tires or the aero package, none of that really matters,” Hamlin said. “You still make speed at this racetrack the same way no matter what car you are driving. I think it’s been one of the few tracks I haven’t had to change my approach to it depending on the car that I’m driving. I think that’s why the success has been sustained.”

The rest of the lineup

Chris Buescher starts second at Pocono and Carson Hocevar — embroiled in a feud with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who has vowed retaliation for recent wrecks — is third. John Hunter Nemechek is fourth and Cole Custer fifth.

Led by Hamlin, Toyota had six of the top-10 starting spots.

Pocono sellout

Pocono Raceway continued its renaissance with a third straight sellout crowd set for Sunday. The track sold out all frontstretch seating, premium seating, suites, infield camping and the grandstand camping area. It also is the fifth consecutive year that the entire infield camping inventory has been sold out.

Pocono president Ben May said the track sold about 50,000 grandstand tickets, around 2,000 suite seats and 3,300 camping spots.

NASCAR traditionally ran two NASCAR weekends at the track until 2022. The sellout streak started the next year and it was the first since 2010.

“When you look at this weekend, it’s sold out. It’s fantastic,” three-time Cup champion Joey Logano said.

NASCAR expressed at least a cursory interest in adding to its recent string of offbeat race locations — everywhere from Mexico City to a temporary track inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum — and floated the idea of holding a race inside a Philadelphia stadium, Franklin Field. The site is traditionally home to the Penn Relays and college football.

May said he wasn’t necessarily concerned another race within driving distance of the mountains — about 100 miles away — would affect Pocono.

“When you get into center city and Philly proper, it’s a stick-and-ball town,” May said. “I’m very comfortable with Pocono’s position on the schedule for a long time.”