- The championship team of Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus were voted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in Charlotte on Wednesday. (Above, they celebrate after clinching the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Championship in 2007.)
- Together, driver Johnson and crew chief Knaus combined to win seven Cup Series titles between 2006 and 2016, and were second-ranked in 2003 and 2004.
- Donnie Allison joins the hall as a NASCAR Pioneer, while Janet Guthrie also earns a special honor.
With virtually no dissent whatsoever, championship driver Jimmie Johnson and his championship-winning crew chief, Chad Knaus, were overwhelmingly swept into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in Charlotte on Wednesday afternoon.
There was almost no suspense when the 61 members of the Voting Panel met—in person, mostly, a few remotely—to select two nominees from the 10-person Modern-Era Ballot, another from the five-person Pioneer Ballot, and the annual Landmark Award winner for lifetime contributions to NASCAR.
The only minor surprise was when retired driver Donnie Allison was the third person named to the Class of 2024. In something of a bigger surprise, Janet Guthrie—with all of 33 Cup Series starts over five years—won the Landmark Award for their lifetime contributions to racing.
Johnson and Knaus were first-timers on the Modern-Era Ballot, and Allison was named on his first appearance on the Pioneer Ballot. Guthrie had been on the Landmark Ballot for six years.
Johnson and Knaus were considered guaranteed locks to make the hall on their first try. The only question would be whether they would be the first (or first and second) to be named on every ballot. It’s never happened, even with the inaugural 2010 class that featured Richard Petty, the late Bill France, Bill France Jr., Junior Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt.
It didn’t happen this time, either, with Johnson getting “only” 93% of the Modern-Era votes and Knaus 81%. Allison got 53% of the Pioneer Ballot votes to beat out runner-up Banjo Matthews.
Together, Johnson and Knaus combined to win seven Cup Series titles between 2006 and 2016, and were second-ranked in 2003 and 2004. Five of those titles came consecutively, between 2006 and 2010.
It’s an unimaginable streak that many within motorsports say is as impressive as any record on any book. It is perhaps as untouchable as Petty’s 200 lifetime Cup Series victories, certainly including his 27 in 1967.
The stats speak to their 18 years of Cup Series excellence: Johnson has won 36 poles and 83 Cup races in 689 starts. He has 232 top-five finishes and 374 top-10s. Among his 83 victories: two Daytona 500s, two Southern 500s, four Brickyard 400s, four Coca-Cola 600s, and four All-Star races.
By 2015, when NASCAR quit releasing drivers’ earnings, he had won more than $150 million in prize money. He once had a streak of 15 top-10 points season in 16 consecutive seasons. No surprise here: He was named one of NASCAR’s Greatest 75 drivers earlier this year.
Knaus’ stats are slightly different since he worked with two other drivers early in his career. He then spent 18 years with Johnson, who left NASCAR in 2020 to try IndyCar racing. The Illinois native has been crew chief for 708 races, won 42 poles, and 82 races—81 with Johnson and one with William Byron in 2020.
He’s currently director of competition at Hendrick Motorsports. (Darian Grubb won two early-season races with Johnson in 2006 while Knaus was suspended for a rules violation),
Janet Guthrie.
Johnson and Knaus easily beat eight holdover nominees on the Modern-Era Ballot: retired drivers Ricky Rudd, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Harry Gant, and the late Larry Phillips and Neil Bonnett. Retired crew chief Tim Brewer and the late crew chief Harry Hyde also were on the ballot.
Allison came from the Pioneer Ballot that included A.J. Foyt, the late driver Sam Ard, and the late car-builders, mechanics, crew chiefs, and team owners Banjo Matthews and Ralph Moody.
Each panelist’s vote is confidential, so we don’t know who kept Johnson and Knaus from being the hall’s first unanimous picks. Without debate, Johnson was—and, when things are going according to plan, remains—as good a stock car driver as we’ve ever seen. Certainly, he’s in the conversation with fellow seven-time champions Petty and Earnhardt. His final few seasons were unsightly, but that’s not exactly uncommon as drivers grow older and perhaps more cautious.
The Class of 2024 induction ceremony will be Friday, Jan. 19 at the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Contributing Editor
Unemployed after three years as an Army officer and Vietnam vet, Al Pearce shamelessly lied his way onto a small newspaper’s sports staff in Virginia in 1969. He inherited motorsports, a strange and unfamiliar beat which quickly became an obsession.
In 53 years – 48 ongoing with Autoweek – there have been thousands of NASCAR, NHRA, IMSA, and APBA assignments on weekend tracks and major venues like Daytona Beach, Indianapolis, LeMans, and Watkins Glen. The job – and accompanying benefits – has taken him to all 50 states and more than a dozen countries.
He’s been fortunate enough to attract interest from several publishers, thus his 13 motorsports-related books. He can change a tire on his Hyundai, but that’s about it.
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