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The further out the skirt is the more downforce it produces (bigger area to create the vacuum in).

Would explain why he was visibly faster in the middle of the corners than everybody else, even a few inches would gain an advantage.

Chad and Adrian Newey were brothers in a previous life, they understand it's the little things that make the difference, not individually, but grouped together all those little tweaks add up to an overall gain.

Jimmie actually had a LR fender rub during happy hour and the skirt did the same thing.

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Well, I guess it was passing tech, so I guess we'll expect to see others doing it soon.

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Gael

That same car will probably be run at Homestead.

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Yeah, the Knaus\Johnson pairing has become even more iconic than Gordon\Evernham. No matter what car, what rules package, they've been title condenders since Jimmie's rookie year. That's insane. Like you, even when I don't want them to win, I can't help but be baffled at just how amazing they are.

They win a lot, so I've learned to just enjoy the ride. It makes me a lot less grumpy on Mondays, and less grumpy about the overall quality of racing. I've got too much other stuff going on to get pissed about it. haha

As for Gordon and Evernham, I think about what might have been as well. Throw in the fact that hiring Jimmie and getting that 48 started (right when Gordon and Loomis were really hitting their stride) kinda set the 24 team back for a couple years, and that makes me wonder even more.

Adding to my frustration of just how good JJ and Chad are is how average JJ was in the Busch series. He was on a decent team... a team that lead the points for a while, unsponsored, with Todd Bodine the year after JJ left. Just goes to show how important a good crew chief/driver combo is.

Well, money talks, and Dodge must have had a much bigger bank account than Hendrick!

Even Stewart was mediocre in Busch yet he's been consistently successful in Cup long since his longest time crew chief Zippadelli left, so it's not really an indicator of anything. Other than some drivers simply do better in high horsepower cars than others. Jimmie, even today, struggles in Nationwide (see this year's Phoenix race).

It pains me that when it comes to Johnson, everyone is quick to credit his success to Knaus yet the same card isn't played when talking about numerous other legendary drivers as well. Both Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough won three championships each with Junior Johnson's team, famous for some of the most cheating in the sport.

I personally hope Jimmie gets to 8 championships and 100 wins. He's already at 5 (possibly 6 this year) and 66 wins. It's not out of the realm of possibility. There will come a day when he too will fade and become a mid pack runner.

2030. Calling it.

I think he'll cruise past Pearson's win record to second all-time tbh. He wins almost 6 races per year on average. At that rate, he can hit 106 wins in around seven years time.

Jimmie posted some decent numbers in ASA. While it's a short track series, it wasn't exactly easy to win considering they ran long distance (300-400 laps) races at short tracks then. Count me as another person that's baffled with his mediocrity in Busch/Nationwide.

Starts:43
Wins: 2
Top 5s: 17
Top 10s: 31
Poles: 3

That one Busch win he has was in the Herzog #92, and hasn't really done anything spectacular in his few one-off's since then. His single Truck race didn't go all that well, either. Also take into consideration that the Chicagoland win in 2001 could have easily been Ryan Newman's, had he not misjudged a lapped car late in the going.

When a driver and team just *clicks* with a certain rules package (or, in this case, a few rules packages), it really is quite remarkable.

they know how to get what they need to go fast before anyone else. being a setup for the weekend or car development for the season.