October 2, 2020 | By Lee Spencer

Chad Knaus move to management comes at the right time for Hendrick Motorsports

Chad Knaus’ desire to establish a better life/work balance could not have come at a better time for Hendrick Motorsports.

After spending more than half his life on the road, the seven-time champion crew chief was looking to spend more time at home with his family. Over the last few years, HMS, once a juggernaut in the NASCAR universe, had lost its competitive edge. The timing was perfect for someone with Knaus’ experience and determination to jump in and right the ship.

On Wednesday, Hendrick Motorsports announced a restructuring of its competition department with Knaus, 49, moving to vice president of competition at season’s end. 

“I’ve been a part of a team, a race team, since I was very, very young,” said Knaus, who currently serves as crew chief of the No. 24 team with driver William Byron. “Race teams are a pretty tight nucleus of folks. You’ve got 20-25 guys and gals that you work really, really closely with. You’re intimate with their families, you know their emotions, you know their needs, their desires, how they impact the performance of the car. You can tell when somebody’s off just by looking at them. That’s definitely what I’m going to miss the most—is just that intimacy with a team, the intimacy with the specific car number. 

“And I know that I’m still part of a huge team at Hendrick Motorsports, but, man, that being ingrained, that quickness of a team to move and react, that’s going to be something that I’m really going to miss. But that’s OK—I’ll focus on that and develop a team that we want to try to grow here where HMS is operating as one big team. That’s going to be a big thing.”
 
In Knaus’ new role, he will oversee the technical development for HMS’ entire race car fleet, as well as the development of the NextGen vehicle that NASCAR will introduce for the 2022 season. The Rockford, Illinois, native—and second-generation racer—will also have a hand in selecting key personnel such as crew chiefs, pit crews, engineering, fabrication and assembly.

Knaus will report to Jeff Andrews, a 28-year HMS veteran who was responsible for Hendrick’s engine department before being promoted to V.P. of competition in 2017. Andrews will now serve as executive vice president and general manager. Both Andrews and Knaus will report to HMS president Marshall Carlson.

Certainly, Hendrick’s engine department suffered following the loss of Andrews to upper management. After months of speculation about a possible engine alliance with ECR—the engine arm of Richard Childress Racing—Hendrick acknowledged the partnership on Thursday. Jimmie Johnson ran the first collaborative engine in the No. 48 Chevy at Las Vegas last Sunday.

“It’s something that we’ve talked about for a while,” Knaus said. “I wouldn’t say that was on my plate a whole lot—Jeff Andrews is really the guy that handles a lot of the engine side of things. So, he and the folks up there at RCR have had a lot of communication over the years. I think we’ve slowly begun to kind of migrate and merge closer together over the years. Obviously, CGR is a customer of ours from an engine standpoint, so getting those ties closer as an entity as I mentioned prior with the key partner of General Motors is really important. Honestly, it makes more sense from a GM standpoint to have a collective group doing research and development to get the car performance higher.
 
“Obviously, a good engine definitely helps. Those guys at RCR do a really good job. I’ve spent some time up there – I’ve been up there two or three times in the last six months or so. I’ve been very impressed with what they’ve got up there at RCR. Those guys do a really good job. They’ve got a lot of resources, and they’re definitely going to have a positive impact on this engine program, for sure.”
 
As Jeff Gordon has taken a larger role at HMS, Knaus has relied on the four-time champion as a sounding board as he transitions into his new job. Knaus' friendship with Gordon dates back to the early 1990s when he was a Rainbow Warrior on the No. 24 championship crew.

“Jeff (Gordon) has been impactful, he really has,” Knaus said. “He and I sat down, I guess the first time three or four years ago, and we sat down and had a conversation over a glass of wine, and talked and spit-balled a little bit. He was curious where my head was in the future and what I wanted to do. 

“I have a ton of respect for Jeff. He brings a uniqueness to our company: he’s an extremely successful race car driver; very, very talented in the broadcast booth, so he understands that side of things; very, very good with the sponsors; and has a good unique vision on how things should go forward. So, I think he was a big part of me understanding what the role is going to be moving forward. I think he and Mr. Hendrick working together is great. 

“We’ve got a couple of unique perspectives up there, so he’s a big part of what’s going on here and it’s a lot of fun working with Jeff. He’s been here late at night with Jeff Andrews and I, 7:00 or 8:00 at night, talking and hashing things out and discussing how we’re going to move forward. He’s been great.”