In retrospect, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Jimmie Johnson won his sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in the same season the Generation-6 car was introduced. On the surface, that seems difficult to believe -- the No. 48 team does, after all, feature a driver in Johnson and a crew chief in Chad Knaus who have been inseparable since they were first paired prior to the 2002 campaign, and in the decade since have set the standard for excellence. No question Matt Kenseth deserved every accolade he received for thriving in a new environment, falling 19 points short of becoming the first driver to win a championship in his inaugural season with a new team since Darrell Waltrip did it with Junior Johnson and Associates in 1981. But Knaus' longtime top engineer, Greg Ives, left to become crew chief for Regan Smith at JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. More...