He called it lame and unoriginal, and swore his lips would never touch ``that dirty old track.''

But when driver Jimmie Johnson grabbed the checkered flag at the Brickyard, his crew chief was practically the first in line to pucker up.

``I admit it, I thought it was stupid and cheesy,'' Knaus sighed. ``But you know what happened? With 10 laps to go and it was clear we were going to win that race, the only thing I was thinking about is how much I wanted to kiss those bricks.''

That exact scenario had been presented to Knaus on a rainy Saturday at Pocono Raceway, when he was bitterly criticizing the practice. When told he wouldn't think twice to lean over and smooch the track surface, he was adamant it was a non-issue.

``We're not going to win that race, I can promise you that right now,'' he grumbled.

Morale was definitely down at that moment, and for good reason.

Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team had been snake-bitten at Indy, a place where their past seasons usually began to fall apart. They'd have a firm hold on top of the points standings, only to endure a terrible day at the Brickyard that would send them into a tailspin.

It happened in 2004, when the motor failed on the No. 48 Chevrolet causing Johnson to notch his first DNF of the season. He wound up 36th, and fell into a deep slump after that race that cost him his points lead and ultimately the Nextel Cup championship.

Last season was even worse, with Johnson landing in the hospital after a hard wreck left him dazed and unable to remember the accident. He finished 38th and lost his points lead to Tony Stewart, who went on to win the championship.

So past history and a subpar test session had the team bracing for another disaster.

And as the day began, it looked they were exactly right.

The batteries were dead in Johnson's radio when he climbed into his car.

Then he got a flat tire early in the race that dropped him all the way back to 38th. And as he pulled away following the tire change, a fire broke out in his pit.

Even after overcoming all of that to slice through the field and grab the lead, a caution for debris with 19 laps cost him his track position. Johnson made a four-tire pit stop that dropped him back to eighth on the restart with 14 laps left in the race.

But he deftly manoeuvred around the cars in front of him, picking them off one at a time until he was back in front with 10 to go.

That's when Knaus realized the kiss was coming, and he excitedly coaxed his driver home for the second-biggest win of their career. The first came in February in the season-opening Daytona 500, and Johnson has now joined Dale Jarrett as the only driver to win at Daytona and Indianapolis in the same season.

Both were done in gritty, determined fashions: The Daytona win came after Knaus had been kicked out for cheating during race preparations, and Indianapolis was a true come-from-behind victory.

And although Johnson is NASCAR's perpetual points leader, those two victories are a clear indication that this team has perhaps finally turned the corner and matured enough to seal its first championship.

This is the time of the year when they have always faltered, when Knaus' obsessive drive wears himself out and grates on everyone else around him. Johnson gets stressed, the team is exhausted, and their firm grip on the Nextel Cup begins to loosen.

Both driver and crew chief sat down with car owner Rick Hendrick over the winter in a heart-to-heart talk aimed at finding a way to finally complete a season. Everyone knew something had to change, and everyone knew it started with Knaus.

Although he had promised to lighten up a little bit and relax in hyper-driven pursuit of a title, his Daytona suspension proved he had a lot of work left to do.

Perhaps it took those four weeks away from the track to fully realize what needed to be done, but when Knaus returned he was clearly changed. He wasn't as in-your-face as he had been, and seemed content to stay on the right side of NASCAR's inspectors.

And he was most definitely humbled.

In the 18 races since he returned, Johnson and his team has quietly put together another stellar season. They've won four points races and the all-star event and sat on top of the standings for all but two weeks of the season.

Now their Brickyard win makes them the team to beat, proven by five of the past eight Indy champions going on to win the title.

But as proof of their new low-key approach, Johnson said they'll wait and see if they've truly turned the corner.

``It's way too early to say that we have broken the pattern, but this is a great start,'' he said. ``It's nice to speculate and to, take this as team morale and tell our guys we got over a big hurdle _ one that really plagued us in the past.

``But there's just too much racing, too much racing going on. It's just too early now to get too confident in anything really.''