Under fire crew chief Chad Knaus has spoken in public for the first time since being suspended by NASCAR for four races following Jimmie Johnson’s disqualification from Bud Pole qualifying at
Daytona ten days ago.
Jesse Essex, Manager of Media Relations, Hendrick Motorsports:
"To clarify, we will not be issuing a formal statement regarding the penalties NASCAR announced today. Hopefully this conference will answer all of your questions.
CHAD KNAUS
"Hey everybody. First of all, thanks for getting on this call so we can talk about this a little bit. Obviously, first off I have to say how proud I am of the job that Ron Mellick, Darian Grubb and the entire crew did in my absence at the Daytona 500. Jimmie (Johnson) really stepped up to the plate and took on a lot of responsibility of the team upon his shoulders. He drove a great race. The guys called a great race.
“The preparation for that race is something we have been working on for a long, long time. Without me being there, those guys had to make a big jump to make sure all that stuff happened and they lived up to the task at hand. I am very proud of those guys. It was a big hole we got ourselves in to obviously to lose our qualifying time and had to race our way up through the 150. We were guaranteed a spot initially but the starting spot pit pick is very, very important and they did a great job there. It was a good deal for those guys to be able to do that.
