Jimmie Johnson’s team members can draw only one conclusion from Tony Stewart’s persistent vowing that they’re not going to get inside his head.
“I guess we’ve gotten inside his head,” Johnson said Friday.
Stewart just wouldn’t let go of a week-old beef with Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, as the two drivers prepared to continue their duel atop the standings of NASCAR’s Chase for the Nextel Cup, in Sunday’s Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500.
“When it comes to the mind-game side of it, [Knaus] is bringing a knife to a gunfight with me,” said Stewart, who qualified 10th for Sunday’s race.
Mind games once were a staple of stretch drives toward NASCAR titles–the late Dale Earnhardt was the maestro of mental pressure–but had quieted in recent years.
Stewart has brought them back in full bloom by accusing the opposition of starting the fuss.
Just what did Knaus say that ticked off Stewart so much?
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“I don’t know,” Knaus said, “but it must have been good if he’s still thinking about it a week later.”
It started last Saturday during practice at Martinsville, Va. Stewart was eavesdropping on Johnson’s radio channel when Knaus supposedly said something so insulting about Stewart and/or his team that Stewart compared it to “somebody talking about your mom.”
Knaus’ remark remains a mystery to everyone but Stewart, who wasn’t telling.
“I’m not going to quote him,” Stewart said. “But some of the things he said–if you had a team and he was talking about us–I mean, it was done with the intention of intimidating us. But there’s some guys you can do that to and intimidate. And there’s some guys that it works the opposite way.
“And if you’re willing to take that risk, you know, there’s a reward that can come with it, or there’s a penalty that can come with it.”
Stewart is leading the standings, albeit by just 15 points over Johnson, and has five wins to Johnson’s four. Stewart has been running so strong that reporters asked what the big deal was about one little overheard remark.
“Let me keep talking about your mom and see what you think about that,” Stewart said. “You know what I mean? That’s the easiest way to describe it.”
“I didn’t really say anything directed toward him,” Knaus said.
Was there anything disparaging Stewart’s team?
“No. Nothing like that,” Knaus said. “I wouldn’t do anything like that.”
The only thing clear about the practice session in question is that Johnson passed Stewart.
“The reason we went out to follow him in practice was out of respect for him,” Johnson said. “He had the fastest car and we wanted to see how we stood up next to him. We passed him and felt good and talked about it on the radio.
“So if he’s still upset over that, then indirectly, I guess, we’ve gotten inside his head,” Johnson said, “even though he says we haven’t.
“I just can’t see people getting this emotional and this upset over us feeling they had a better car.”
“It’s not mind games–we’re just racing,” Knaus said. “I’ll do whatever I can to make my guys pumped up, and if I feel like telling my driver he’s better than the 20 car [Stewart’s] on that run, and that pumps up my driver, and it hurts Tony’s feelings, well, I’m sorry.”
Besides, Knaus added, “It’s not like I got on the radio and was talking directly to Tony. Whatever I did say was on our radio, so why were they listening to that?”
Teams often monitor one another’s radio channels to gather intelligence.
“Oh, yeah, you scan ’em,” said Robbie Loomis, Jeff Gordon’s former crew chief, who now is assisting Knaus. “But you don’t make a big deal out of whatever you hear. You just do it to learn whether somebody’s car is good or bad.”
Late in last Sunday’s race, Stewart shoved Johnson’s car sideways to get past him for a second-place finish to Gordon. But Johnson doubted the fender-banging had to do with mind games.
“It’s tough to say,” Johnson said. “Hard short-track racing leads to bump-and-runs, and Tony felt like he had to give me a bump-and-run to get by me.”
“We’ll see what Chad says for the remainder of the season,” Stewart said, meaning the four remaining races. “There’s guys you can trash-talk and intimidate, and there’s guys that it’s going to work the opposite for you. I don’t think Chad thought deep enough into it to realize that you don’t want to do that with us. You’re picking on the wrong guy, because we pick back.”
“Something,” Johnson said with a chuckle, “has gotten to him.”
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