Subscibe to our feedTeam Lowe's Racing Looks for First Win at Knaus's Home Track
Chicagoland Speedway is one of only six tracks on which Jimmie Johnson and Team Lowe’s Racing haven’t earned a victory. However in seven starts at the 1.5-mile oval, the No. 48 Lowe’s Impala SS has collected six top 10 finishes.
While Johnson has enjoyed a lot of success in his home state of California, with two wins in the last four starts at Auto Club Speedway, the same can not be said for crew chief Chad Knaus, a native of Rockford, Ill.
“I always enjoy going to Chicagoland and back to Illinois for races,” said Knaus. “I don’t get there very often with the busy schedule I have, but it’s where I got my start in racing so I have a lot of good memories from the area. We still haven’t gotten the win in Chicago, so we’ll be going after it this weekend.”
Johnson brought home a runner-up finish at the Joliet, Ill. track last year after a yellow flag with two laps remaining erased the lead he had on Kyle Busch. Busch passed Johnson during the final green-white-checker run and beat him to the line by .159 seconds.
“We always run well there – I think we’ve only finished outside the top five or so twice,” added Knaus. “But for some reason things haven’t worked out for us yet to get to Victory Lane.
“We’re taking a good car – the one we had in Michigan (led 146 of 200 laps). So maybe this is our year we can finally get a win near my hometown.”
Saturday night’s race will be broadcast live on TNT beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.
RACE NOTES
Chicagoland Speedway
- Johnson has made seven Sprint Cup Series starts at Chicagoland Speedway, posting six top-10 and five top-five finishes.
- The 1.5-mile oval is one of only six Sprint Cup tracks on which Johnson hasn’t visited Victory Lane. The others are Bristol, Infineon, Michigan, Watkins Glen, and Homestead.
- The three-time Champion has completed 97.6% (1827 of 1872) of competition laps there and has led 176.
- Johnson has an average start and finish of 9.3 and 8.1.
Chassis- Johnson will pilot chassis No. 552 in Sunday’s Sprint Cup event, which he last drove to a 22nd-place finish at Michigan in June.
- Backup chassis No. 465 was last driven at Dover in May, where Johnson took it to Victory Lane.