"It became personal": Jimmie Johnson looks back on 'toxic' relationship with Chad Knaus in final years of his HMS stint

Jimmie Johnson recently opened up on the progression of his dynamic with Chad Knaus over his driving career. Johnson and Knaus were once one of the most unbeatable forces in NASCAR as they conquered seven Cup titles and over 80 wins together.

Recently, in an interview with Kevin Harvick, the former #48 driver revealed how he and Knaus played off each other, and how it eventually reached a point where it simply no longer worked.

"He was the bad cop. I was the good cop within the team. By the way, he did so much pushing that I didn't need to. But I knew the way he pushed others, he expected that from me. And I felt I needed to take some stress off of him and I made sure that I had my s**t together and that was the responsibility I took in hand. He nudged me occasionally. There were certainly moments where it got heated and Rick would have to get involved," Johnson described. [11:00]

He claimed the 'great thing' for the longest time was that it was never personal between him and Knaus. In fact, Jimmie Johnson said it was 'also funny.' The pressure that they both put on each other, with which they soared to the highest of highs in NASCAR, worked for them until the last two to three seasons of Johnson's career with Hendrick Motorsports.

"It became personal like I was afraid and frustrated that my career wasn't winding down the way that I wanted it to. Chad the same. And so where we were always aligned and never kind of personally attacked each other, we started to indirectly," he mentioned.

Jimmie Johnson clarified that it wasn't something he or Knaus intended to do, but it became personal and impacted their success more than anything. Because of this, Rick Hendrick had to step in and separate the iconic duo as driver and crew chief.

It wasn't something that we intended to do, but it became personal and that eroded away at our success more than anything. And then, eventually, Rick separated us.

Jimmie Johnson opens up on life after Chad Knaus in the final years of his HMS career.

In 2019, Kevin Meendering was appointed as the crew chief of Jimmie Johnson. But that partnership didn't last even one full season, as midway through 2019, Cliff Daniels was given the helm of the #48 team to save Johnson's season.

Talking about the change from Knaus to Meendering to Daniels, Jimmie Johnson recalled that 'it was tough' as change always is. He said he wanted to see out his career with Chad Knaus at the helm, but he couldn't because it got 'toxic and tough' and began taking a toll on them and their team.

Eventually, they were separated, and Meendering came in. But then, even he and Meendering didn't work, HMS brought Cliff Daniels in, with whom Johnson saw some hope.

"I could see when Cliff came in, I grew up in a certain kind of system and Cliff is that guy and I needed that that pressure from Cliff. All that being said, there were a lot of great learning moments in that. But when the 2020 season started, I just knew that my fire had gone out in a lot of ways. And I just couldn't go any further," Johnson said. [13:40]

He claimed that while he was aware his new crew chief could build a team, he wanted him to win a record-breaking 8th Cup title; he simply lost the motivation to go further.