Beech Tree News Network

Cam Waugh, R.J. Barnette, Ryan Patton, T.J. Ford, Brandon Harder, and Dave Mayo are names you probably don’t recognize, but they’re at the heart of one of the most dominant teams in professional sports. So far in calendar year 2013 they’ve staked their team to a commanding regular season lead in the standings, and they’re at the precipice of taking their star teammate to heights reached only by two other men in his sport.

Of course the team I’m talking about is Team Lowe’s, the pit crew for Hendrick Motorsports #48, crew chiefed by Chad Knaus and driven by Jimmie Johnson.

If you’re not a fan of Johnson I have some bad news for you. He’s going to win his sixth championship this season if something bad doesn’t happen. And by bad, I mean BAD. It will take some sort of tragic circumstance to slow the roll the 48 car and team find themselves enjoying. Heading into this weekend’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Johnson has a 44 point lead over his nearest competitor, Carl Edwards. That might not sound like much, so I will put it in the proper perspective. Johnson’s lead is so long that he could take a day off on Sunday, and he would still lead the standings on Monday, even if Edwards won the race. He’s a full race ahead of everyone else in the Sprint Cup Series. Nobody has ever opened a season like this, or held a lead like this, and the season won’t be a third of the way through the schedule until after this weekend’s Coke 600.

I’m not a fan of Johnson, but I’m giving in and admitting that he has made a pretty fair driver at NASCAR’s top level. Since his rookie year in 2002 Johnson has 62 wins, 30 poles, and just shy of $124-million in winnings to go along with his five consecutive Sprint Cup championships. No driver since Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001 has come close to matching Johnson’s stats. So far this year no team has been able to put together any sort of serious challenge for Johnson and Team Lowe’s.

I mentioned the pit crew in the opening of this piece for a reason. I’m willing to match Team Lowe’s and their accomplishments in the past 11 years against any other team in professional sports. No other team has more than three championships in that time period. The Lakers and Spurs each have three NBA titles, the Patriots have three Super Bowl wins, and the St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox, and San Francisco Giants have each won two World Series since 2002. Even mighty Alabama of college football has only three titles in the same span as Johnson’s dominance.
You have to go back a long way to find any team or player, in any sport, that can even attempt to approach the dominance of the Lowe’s Team in the last 11 years. The last time the World Series was won five years in a row was by the New York Yankees from 1949-53. The Celtics won 8 titles straight from 1959-1966, but other than that there’s not been the major sports dominance exhibited by Johnson and Team Lowe’s. You can make an argument that John Force’s run of 14 consecutive NHRA Funny Car titles could rival Johnson, but Force had an advantage that Johnson didn’t enjoy.

When John Force was winning practically every funny car race in the world he was basically his only competition. The NHRA didn’t have several well-funded teams setting their only goal as beating Force. However Johnson has accomplished all his feats with a stacked field of competitors going against him week in and out. He won his titles at a time when nobody thought he was a leading contender to win a championship, let alone five straight titles. His string of five were titles most figured would be won by guys named Gordon, Earnhardt Jr., Stewart, Edwards, or Busch. With the exception of Tony Stewart nobody on that list of contenders has managed to win even one title since Johnson started his run of greatness.

Like any great team, the Lowe’s team does have a good coach—Crew Chief Chad Knaus, and a great owner—Rick Hendrick. Knaus is the calm, studious, and steady leader of Team Lowe’s. He was more unknown than Johnson before the wins started, and now he’s reached Phil Jackson status in the garage area. There are no teams that don’t think Knaus could be their missing piece to a championship run of their own, and also no teams that have anything at all to lure Johnson away from his spot at Hendrick Motorsports. For his part Hendrick handles his ownership duties much the same way as other great sports owners have done. He puts the pieces in place and the resources at the disposal of who needs them, and then steps back and enjoys the show. Of course sitting back and enjoying the show is easier if you’ve managed to win ten championships and 212 races in NASCAR’s top division since 1984.

As dominant as this team has been, I think it could all come to an end if the team were to break up. Like Jeff Gordon before him, Johnson is a champion linked inexorably to his crew chief. When the tandem of Gordon and  Ray Evernham were together they looked unstoppable. They won three titles, stole Dale Earnhardt’s thunder, and made the Rainbow Warriors the most formidable race team on the planet. But when Evernham started his own team and Steve LeTarte took over on the box for Gordon the dominance came to a screeching halt. Only one title has been won by the 24 team since the loss of Evernham, and without his ‘boy wonder’ Evernham managed only a smattering of wins with his own Cup level team, and finally left the sport after 2008.

Take Knaus away from Johnson and Jimmie is a good driver, capable of winning, but not a driver that is a threat to win every race. Take Johnson away from Knaus and Chad is still a top crew chief, but doesn’t have a driver that can feed him information, and take instructions the way Johnson can. I think Knaus could win races with another driver, but it would be a stretch to nab a title.

If you’re not a fan of Johnson don’t look for the Knaus/Johnson divorce any time soon. Hendrick has both men signed to binding, long-term contracts, and has the Lowe’s backing assured as long as he wants it. They will continue to have the best equipment Hendrick can buy and build, and the guys going over the wall will still be unsung all-stars just waiting to do their part to keep the wins and the championships rolling in.

Also if you’re not a fan of Johnson, you might want to start following baseball for the rest of this season, because it sure looks like he’s the man to beat, if he can be beaten at all.
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