It got kind of to the point where it was a bit of a lull in the season as you go through those first 26 races just because ?? we were leading the points. So everybody was really jazzed up and ready to go racing and I was myself and Jimmie was. It was unfortunate we had an issue there but we went to the next race and said, okay, this is how we're going to approach it, and we had some issues there, and I think we went to Kansas, had a phenomenal race car there and had some issues. Went to Talladega, had a phenomenal race car there.
Every racetrack that we had a plan for and stuck by our guns on, we had great race cars and that's something I'm proud of that we were able to plan ahead and that worked out well and we would not have been in that situation if we were not leading the points in the summer stretch.
Q:/B>
Things went wrong [a couple of years back] and you didn't bounce back, what was the difference this year?
CK:
I don't agree with that completely. We won four races in the final ten races a couple years ago when Kurt Busch won the championship, we were hitting on all cylinders. The big difference between this year and that year is nobody had any major issues in that Chase and we went through our typical fall Talladega race or crashed out or blew an engine or whatever it was and had some issues and had to overcome that.
Last year I think we pushed maybe harder than what we needed to through the summer to try to get some things going and I made a huge transition personally with the help of Mr. Hendrick, as to how I needed to approach this year as a leader instead of just being a crew chief. I think that was a big thing.
Q:
Did that transition go easier than you imagined it would be when you and Rick talked about it during the off-season?
CK:
Yeah, it did, because, you know, I think it would be hard for somebody that did not want to get better; that did not want this. And this is the only thing that I've ever dreamed of my whole life. I remember laying in bed when I was a teenager watching Dale Earnhardt winning the championship thinking one day I want to be crew chief of what was then the Winston Cup, the champion crew chief of Winston Cup. I wanted it so bad that I knew that I needed to make some adjustments to make the feel like they were more a part of it.
![Jimmie Johnson's 2006 championship winning team. [Pic Credit image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/281326.jpg)
