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Why Chad Knaus didn’t want Jimmie Johnson to do a burnout after his Atlanta win

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Jimmie Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, talks about the call to get Jimmie Johnson track position and how nerve-wracking it was when Kevin Harvick was making a late charge and the team was monitoring his lap times.

Although crew chief Chad Knaus’ decision helped Jimmie Johnson win Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Johnson didn’t follow Knaus’ orders afterward.

Knaus told Johnson not to do a burnout.

Johnson did one anyway.

Why the order?

“Man, did you see what happened to (Kyle Busch) on Friday?’’ Knaus said in reference to Busch’s car failing post-qualifying inspection. “I’m not taking any chances right now. I don’t want anything bent or broken or anything to warrant any type of problem right there.

“So until we understand exactly what’s going on with all the post‑race measuring, which it’s a pretty big deal … we don’t know what these cars do during a race, especially at a racetrack like this where there’s a bunch of bouncing and moving and so on and so forth. I just didn’t want to take a chance on him tearing something up doing a burnout and not passing post‑race (inspection).’’

Johnson’s car passed inspection after the race at the track.

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