Is there a Bill Belichick in NASCAR? This was a question that was posed in front of Denny Hamlin recently on Actions Detrimental. And yes, Hamlin believes there is a Belichick-like personality in stock car racing. But he isn’t currently doing what he was doing in his prime.
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Because for Hamlin, the Belichick of NASCAR is the Hall of Famer crew chief Chad Knaus, who is currently the Vice President of Competition at Hendrick Motorsports. He said of Knaus, “Was he the most popular guy amongst his teammates, drivers? Probably not. But that dude was relentless, and I loved his passion for winning and he would do whatever it took to make that happen.”
“That’s your Bill Belichick is Chad Knaus and again, I admire, you know, someone that said, you know, puts competition first over anything else. And you won’t meet anyone that was relentless as much as Chad in-house was.”
It’s worth mentioning that while Belichick won 6 Super Bowls, Chad Knaus won 7 Cup championships, 5 of which were in a row, along with 81 Cup wins. But perhaps it is more about the parallels in personality and the endless hunger to win, which is what made Hamlin consider Knaus as the Belichick of NASCAR.
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Denny Hamlin puts Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson in pretty high regard
Earlier this year, when Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson were inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Denny Hamlin spoke about the legendary duo and how their achievements may never be replicated in the future.
“Winning five in a row, listen, NASCAR keeps getting harder. Like, you know, what they accomplished, 80 wins, in which the era of which they did it, it’s just unbelievable,” Hamlin said on his podcast.
“Winning five championships with different cars, different formats, all that. They were tough. Maybe the greatest that this sport has seen.”
Hamlin remarked how he was unfortunate to race against the duo of Johnson and Knaus because not only were they faster than him most of the times, even when they weren’t fast, they would “find ways to beat you.”
