Regardless of the calls from Rick Hendrick and questions from reporters that began earlier than the start of his ultimate full-time season, NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson has provided the identical line all through 2020 to the skeptics questioning, “Are you positive?”

Johnson is sticking by his retirement plans by way of the pandemic yr that included a optimistic COVID-19 take a look at, missed race and principally fanless occasions. Johnson is certain, he’s repeatedly stated, and is slated to run a part-time IndyCar schedule with Chip Ganassi Racing subsequent season.

“For me and the expertise I went by way of to get to that time to make the announcement that I did final fall,” Johnson stated throughout an hour-long particular on FS1 Thursday honoring the seven-time Cup Collection champion. “I cleared that hurdle.”

Johnson’s exit from Hendrick Motorsports might be timed with the promotion of his longtime crew chief Chad Knaus, who will transition to the position of vp of competitors for the corporate after the season. Knaus, who’s the crew chief for the No. 24 automobile after 17 seasons and 7 championships with Johnson and the No. 48 group, stated the subsequent transfer was one thing he’d thought of for a very long time.

He stated the chance to spend extra time together with his household, following the delivery of his second little one this summer time, was a part of the enchantment in accepting the chief job.

Because the duo of dads prioritizes household life, Hendrick Motorsports is left wanting younger. The typical age of Hendrick’s three recognized drivers subsequent season — Chase Elliott, William Byron and Alex Bowman — is 9 years youthful than the mixed common age of the 2021 drivers on the remainder of the “Large 4” groups of Stewart-Haas Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Crew Penske.

Whereas Hendrick crew chief Alan Gustafson, who works with Elliott and the No. 9 group, has 16 years of Cup crew chiefing expertise, Greg Ives (crew chief for Bowman) and Cliff Daniels (crew chief for Johnson) have a mixed eight years of expertise at NASCAR’s highest stage. Knaus stated it might be “silly” to not assume that the tip of the season, and the modifications that brings, marks the tip of the previous and the beginning of a brand new period for Hendrick Motorsports.

“We’ve acquired plenty of youth right here that we are able to construct upon,” Knaus stated. “And I believe that’s thrilling.”

The Void

Knaus, very like Johnson, is modest about his legacy within the sport. He ascended by way of the ranks of HMS to turn out to be the winningest playoff crew chief in NASCAR historical past with 29 wins, nearly thrice greater than some other crew chief, and guided 22-year-old Byron to his first victory within the Cup Collection in August.

He responded to a query about what he has taught Johnson throughout their storied careers by first complimenting the motive force: “He creates a objective and he assaults it,” Knaus stated, including that if there may be one factor he has taught Johnson it’s that “you want management.”

“You want construction. You want steerage. And also you want any person to maintain the warmth on you,” Knaus stated.

However that management high quality, by way of each profession achievements on the racetrack and comportment off of it, has additionally been mirrored in Johnson, and Knaus famous the motive force’s irreplaceable qualities within the group.

“Inevitably, as he walks away, part of that goes away with him, proper?” Knaus stated. “That’s gonna be a void.”

He stated the group is working to fill the hole with drivers it feels can “carry the torch” for a company that has gone on historic championship successful runs with drivers like Johnson and Jeff Gordon.

“We’re going to have that void for a little bit bit,” Knaus stated. “However I believe Chase is doing a incredible job. You take a look at the efficiency of that 88 automobile. Alex Bowman is doing a incredible job. William is coming alongside tremendous robust.”

Bowman and Elliott are nonetheless in playoff competition within the Spherical of 8, though neither driver has made it to the Championship four race earlier than. Elliott is coming off his fourth consecutive street course win with Sunday’s victory on the Charlotte Roval and is seeking to make it his yr to interrupt by way of to the ultimate present.

“Once we’ve been at our greatest and we’re all, as a group, me included, performing on the stage that we’re all able to doing, I really feel like we’ve contended with the very best of the sequence this yr,” Elliott stated, including that he thinks the group is “able to doing that once more.”

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Not Jimmie

Bowman made it very clear that his transition to the No. 48 automobile from the No. 88 subsequent season doesn’t imply he’ll replicate Johnson: “I don’t need to be Jimmie,” Bowman stated.

“I need to win seven championships and do all the nice issues that he did,” Bowman stated. “However I’m my very own individual so I’m simply going to method it like one other race automobile.”

Whereas Elliott has probably the most wins after Johnson of Hendrick’s present drivers, and a few anticipate him to “carry the torch,” his rhetoric was in keeping with what Bowman expressed. Johnson’s footwear are too massive to fill, and Elliott stated he isn’t making an attempt to do this.

“From a management perspective and making an attempt to fill that position, I don’t know that I’m going to be very productive in making an attempt to be him or fill that,” Elliott stated. “I believe the very best factor I can do is be myself.”

However Elliott being himself might spark a really productive yr for the group because it enters 2021, during which NASCAR will implement a street course-heavy schedule. There are various upcoming modifications the group will navigate, together with inner personnel strikes, coordinating engine R&D with Richard Childress Racing and Chevrolet, naming one other driver to pilot the No. 88 and the eventual shift to Subsequent Gen for 2022. However subsequent yr’s schedule might assist make the brand new period a profitable one.

Excluding Johnson, Hendrick’s drivers have 12 wins between Elliott (9), Bowman (two) and Byron (one) and as former Hendrick crew chief and NBC’s NASCAR analyst Steve Letarte famous, “Whereas they’re younger on age, they’re not younger on begins.”

“With the schedule change — six street programs subsequent yr, a bunch of recent tracks, Nashville, COTA, the checklist is lengthy — I believe that typically a contemporary method, a little bit little bit of youth will be a bonus if managed appropriately,” Letarte stated.

If Elliott continues demonstrating his road-course prowess, and Bowman hits a breakthrough as Byron retains creating, all whereas navigating the modifications of NASCAR’s subsequent years, the 20-somethings gained’t want Johnson’s identical expertise and management fashion to match his success within the subsequent Hendrick period.

Knaus is conscious of his position in serving to the younger drivers develop, however he stated he’s snug relinquishing the reigns for the subsequent wave.

“I believe it’s an amazing alternative for me to experience on the coattails of those guys as they’re going on the market successful races,” Knaus stated. “And hopefully I can seem like I helped a little bit bit.”