No Joke for Team 48
Jimmie Johnson was drooling at the prospect of getting even with crew chief Chad Knaus for the practical joke he pulled after they won their first Sprint Cup championship in 2006.
In case you have heard the story, Knaus and major league baseball pitcher Mike Hampton had room service deliver a few bottles of champagne to Johnson’s South Florida hotel room after they’d been out well past their normal bedtime celebrating the title.
They then pretended to be room service, bursting through the door and spraying Johnson and his wife, Chandra, as they slept, with a true victory lane style celebration.
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"They just soaked us," said Johnson, who'd just gone to sleep. "I was really impressed with what they pulled off."
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A year later, after winning the second of three straight titles, Johnson wanted revenge. The problem was he didn’t know how to pull it off until he walked to the front desk to change his room keys and names so Knaus couldn’t strike again first.
“As I’m going through that process the phone rings at the front desk,’’ Johnson recalled. “The gentleman answers and takes the room service order. As he is taking the
order he says, ‘Thank you Mr. Knaus. It’ll be right to you.’ And he writes down the room number.
“I’m like, ‘There is a God.’ ’’
So Johnson ordered champagne, beer and “all kinds of stuff,’’ grabbed every liquid he could from his mini bar and headed with Chandra for Knaus’ room pretending to be room service.
“Sure enough, he opened the door and we came flying through and got him back,’’ Johnson said.
Such moments of frivolity don’t come often with the No. 48 Lowe’s team. As one crew member said, “We don’t joke. We just work on winning.’’
They do that well. Johnson has won more races [41] since entering the Sprint Cup series in 2002 than any driver. He also has more titles during that span.
He didn’t accomplish this by playing games. It’s doubtful anybody pulled an April Fool’s joke this April Fool’s Day.
“We’re here for business,’’ Knaus said.
He’s not kidding. Knaus won’t even admit that his 2006 stunt was a practical joke.
“That was a wakeup call,’’ he said with a straight face. “We had to get up and go to New York, so I had to get in there and wake Jimmie up. The best way to do that would have been obviously to continue the celebration and douse him with champagne while he was sleeping.’
“Our guys have plenty of fun, no doubt about it,” Johnson said.
Knaus agreed.
“We just have a different mentality here,’’ he said. “We have a good time. We love our jobs. We enjoy what we do. We don’t need practical jokes and gimmicks like that to have fun. We race.’’
But when the season is over and another title has been won, that’s another story.
“Last year we didn’t do anything,’’ Johnson said of himself and Knaus following the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “We both were looking for an opportunity, but at the same time I didn’t want to do it and worry about him paying me back again.
“Right now the score is even and I sort of like it that way.’’