Best crew chief in the garage?

The way Chad Knaus is able to set up a car for the Chase in the final 10 races is nothing short of amazing.He seems to count the first 36 races as more like a preseason football game getting ready for the final 10.
 
My bad,the first 26 races getting ready for final 10.Wife and I are having breakfast before work,she said the she bet the other crew chiefs would love to see inside that book Chad carries around with him.
 
ToyYoda said:
Todd Gordon probably deserves a mention.
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I was going to say the same thing.. I may be biased but that guy can pull off some pretty great and subtle strategy and much more often than not they can get a top 5 or 10 out of what looked like a writeoff of a day.

That being said.. Its hard to go against Chad Knaus.

Also Ive always been impressed by Adam Stevens.. as far back as when he and Joey worked together at JGR in NNS. Then he impressed me even more when he came out and won the title in his rookie year after his driver missed 14 races. That in itself is an amazing feat that will most likely never be duplicated by another driver/crew chief duo.
 
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I see a lot of people saying Knaus, but I don't know... It depends on what you define as "best" for CC.

Best at making a car great in practice? Sure, Chad is probably #1. But as Steve Letarte explained a few weeks ago, Chad was always the best at taking an already good car off the trailer and making it great, but he couldn't take a bad car and make it good. That's what Steve thought he was better at.

Is it best at making in-race strategy calls? Because statistically someone else is better. In 2016, the CC who held or gained the most spots calling his driver in on green flag pit stops was... Adam Stevens. Surprising to me, I know, because I think Stevens is good for a race or two a year where he completely brain-farts and loses Kyle the race. See Phoenix 1 last year, Vegas this year, taking 2 tires pitting from the head of the line for no reason. But apparently knowing that gut feeling of when to call a driver in is one of the best indicators of CC skill, so says the stat guys, and Stevens is tops.

Is best the one who can build and unload the most dominant cars on Thursdays? Because since Cole Pearn and Truex have been together at FRR they've occasionally unleashed a monster of a car. Similarly, Rodney Childers has given Harvick a worldbeater of a car every now and then. I haven't seen that recently from the 48 team.
 
If I were starting a race team tomorrow, and I was able to steal one person from the entire industry (driver, crew chief, engineer, doesn't matter) I would take Cole Pearn...and it wouldn't even be a tough decision for me. Does that make him "the best crew chief" I don't know. Like someone said earlier, it depends on your criteria. I think a few others manage a race better than him, manage a crew better than him, manage a driver better than him, cheat better than him, etc. But I do believe that he is the biggest "difference maker" in the performance of a program...even more so than any single driver.
 
aunty dive said:
Hard to argue with 7 Cups.
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Agree. Though I can't help but think his resources (and the company he's surrounded himself with at HMS when he was younger, like other CC's, drivers etc) certainly helped. Which isn't a strike against him, it's just why I qualified my statement the way I did..."If I were starting a race team tomorrow..." I'm not sure whether or not Chad could take a one car team with a limited budget (let alone on a geographic island) and turn them into a real contender. Maybe he could. Who knows. But what I do know...and for a fact...is that Cole has the ability to.
 
Knaus for his record and Childers/Pearn in second/third.

Knaus has the titles to do the talking. Childers got Reutimann (sp?) a win and the 4 is arguably a top 3 team since he has been there... but harvick is pretty good so hard to say. Pearl made the 78 a contender even before the JGR alliance.
 
Allenbaba said:
Agree. Though I can't help but think his resources (and the company he's surrounded himself with at HMS when he was younger, like other CC's, drivers etc) certainly helped. Which isn't a strike against him, it's just why I qualified my statement the way I did..."If I were starting a race team tomorrow..." I'm not sure whether or not Chad could take a one car team with a limited budget (let alone on a geographic island) and turn them into a real contender. Maybe he could. Who knows. But what I do know...and for a fact...is that Cole has the ability to.
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You make a VERY good point there..... something that has to be taken into consideration.

I think Knaus has shown over the years that he is probably at the top of the list.... but.. as you mentioned... had the roles been reversed and he didn't have the resources he has been awarded..... maybe he would have been termed a mediocre crew chief.... we will never know.... his records are in the books....
 
Michfan said:
Do all of the other CC's have 7 titles combined? Poor thread. You should feel bad.
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I could have went on a novel in the thread but wanted to see the replies and other info.

I wouldn't give Knaus the best crew chief in the garage right now award right now. If you want to give me a time frame, yeah he's probably at the top of the list. Childers was a pretty good crew chief at MWR with a lot of different drivers and as soon as he left MWR they started to decline. Martin Truex, Jr. was 25th in the points in 2014 and with the Chevy affilliation in 2015, they completely turned it around.
 
I am going to go with Cole Pearn because of the team he took over and what they accomplished. I am also taking into consideration that his driver was never a top 10 contender. Second is Childers and I base that on what he could do with multiple drivers at MWR and the fact that he and Harvick made
SHR a contender. I don't count Championships because Bush, Harvick and JJ all have lottery championships.
Chad was great in his day because he had a great driver, the best resources and he played the Chase well. Also they started their run with the very best of the # 24 cars from the previous year.
 
I'd go with Childers. He used to be a racecar driver and a mechanic before he became a crew chief so he has a pretty diverse skillset. Not to mention he's won with Reutimann and Vickers while at MWR (mediocre drivers and mediocre team) and won a Championship during his first year with Harvick.
 
Chad Knaus. 7 Titles. The "lottery championships" stuff doesn't hold weight for me. Everyone plays by the same rules. Same rules. One guy produces the best results within the same context...he's the best. It's simply logic that doesn't need to be detailed in my opinion.

I never liked Rodney Childers and I think he's a better "setup" crew chief than a race calling crew chief. He's kind of a closet narcissist and I am not fond of his personality in general.

He was once arguing with a fan on twitter, and I chimed in with one tweet to try to defuse it.. and Rodney Childers himself sent me a personal message defending himself to me which I thought was kind of pathetic.

Anyone remember Bob Osbourne? I listened to him with Edwards and when Osbourne was healthy, and with a good team, he was about as good as anyone. In terms of mid race adjustments, appealing to his drivers personality, his social skills, and his coaching skills. IMO, Osbourne had the potential to be the best CC not named Knaus or Zippideli the last 15 years.
 
Osbourne had the potential to be the best CC not named Knaus or Zippideli the last 15 years.[/QUOTE]

Who is Zippideli?
 
Chad for right now has the rings and wins to back up as being the best, but he also is in a org that doesn't have a limit basically on getting the best parts and data. Move him over to Petty and then see how he would do.
 
HMS is/was successful because of the high quality of their Human Resources, which includes Mr. Knaus.

The top 25 or 30 cars all have the best equipment money can buy. If you unwrapped them all you would have a tough time telling one from another.

Ask Ganassi's crew chiefs why they're running so well. The answer won't have anything to do with parts and equipment.
 
Allenbaba said:
If I were starting a race team tomorrow, and I was able to steal one person from the entire industry (driver, crew chief, engineer, doesn't matter) I would take Cole Pearn...and it wouldn't even be a tough decision for me. Does that make him "the best crew chief" I don't know. Like someone said earlier, it depends on your criteria. I think a few others manage a race better than him, manage a crew better than him, manage a driver better than him, cheat better than him, etc. But I do believe that he is the biggest "difference maker" in the performance of a program...even more so than any single driver.
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I agree. He can set a car up obviously, and I like the steely eyed competitor that he is. In Fontana, I actually like that he was laughing about his call to keep Martin out (where I usually like a good temper tantrum). Kind of said to me that he is so confident about his next decision that he can let the one that didn't work out go. I like that.
 
Keith Rodden bar none.*

* So yesterday was the Apr 1 big deal.
 
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