From Winner to Champion, Part 3: Championship Metal

Editor’s note: This is the third installment in a seven-part series celebrating the 30th anniversary of Jeff Gordon’s first NASCAR Cup Series championship and the first for Hendrick Motorsports in 1995. Join us each Thursday as we relive all the moments and talk to many of the players involved in one of the organization's and the sport's most unforgettable and important seasons.  

For Jon.

CONCORD, N.C. - Throughout the fall and winter of 1994 and into the early parts of 1995, Chad Knaus spent much of his time in Detroit ... living like a vampire. 

And he was far from alone. 

It was all part of an intensive, collaborative effort that brought Chevrolet teams in NASCAR as well as engineers and professionals from General Motors together for a common cause. Knaus, then a fabricator and tire changer on Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team, was very hands on in the development of what would turn out to be one of the most successful race cars in the sport's history: the Generation 4 Chevy Monte Carlo, which would replace the Lumina after the 1994 season. 

“I can remember testing, going to the wind tunnel so many times that offseason that I didn’t think the sun ever came up in Detroit,” Knaus said. “Every time I went to Detroit it was cold and snowy and gray and then we would go in and have a 12-hour shift in the wind tunnel, we would arrive when it was dark and leave when it was dark. It was something else. A tremendous amount of work was put into that program that year.” 

In the mid-1990s, wind tunnels were fewer and far between than present day. And though GM housed one, research and development for its passenger cars took priority over the racing side, relegating work on racing to any and all time slots that were left over. 

Affectionately coined, 'the zero shift,' often those hours were from midnight until 8 a.m. Sometimes, there were 16-hour shifts. If there was a waking moment to be had, the group took it. 

"One of the most important things to ask in the wind tunnel was, 'What does everyone like on their pizza?'" recalled Dwight Woodbridge, aerodynamics manager at GM at the time. 

Don Taylor, group manager for Chevrolet Racing at the time, also recalled the logistical challenges facing teams that made the journey to Michigan.

“The production car people would commandeer it for the daytime, and we would get the nightshift. Those guys would pile in the truck and come up and get here at nine or 10 at night, so, it was already dark in Detroit and there’d be snow on the ground and they had light jackets if anything,” Taylor said. “I remember they had these little, thin-sole leather shoes, which didn’t do too well in six inches of snow. They thought it would be warmer in the wind tunnel. It wasn’t.” 

Cold and tired, yes. But determined, to be sure. And what's a little adversity in the face of discovery? 

The 1995 Chevy Monte Carlo was so many things all at once. Perhaps the pinnacle of manufacture and race team cooperation, the car also signaled the beginning of an end of an era in car building as well. In the years and generations that would follow, cars would become more and more uniform with NASCAR regulations growing ever stricter. 

Perhaps part of the reason for those reductions in gray area from stock car racing's governing body in the years that followed was the success the Gen 4 Monte Carlo would accumulate almost right away. 

Undoubtedly, Gordon and the No. 24 team with Ray Evernham atop the pit box was at the forefront of the coming Chevy onslaught. 

“That was one of the finest stock cars ever built,” Evernham summarized. “It was the last stock car to ever fit the templates properly and the Hendrick group go out ahead of it. We felt like we were ready to go head-to-head with the best.”  

FROM WINNER TO CHAMPION, PART 1: 'One Hot Night'

Meetings of the minds

In part two of this series, drivers, crew chiefs and others long involved in NASCAR commented on the hesitance of individual race teams to conform to the constructs of team racing. 

And if teammates under a shared organizational umbrella had trouble cooperating, cars connected only by a manufacturer's emblem on the grill were near mortal enemies. 

Yet, like it or not, the development of the Chevy Monte Carlo was one catalyst that began to turn the tide of teamwork as team representatives were thrust together inside boardrooms for long periods of time. It was a process, however, that wasn't without its own growing pains. 

“The teams were all operating independently and so, we would pull them together in one room and they’d look at each other like, ‘This is not my friend here,’” Taylor recalled. 

“It was another jumping off point for a lot of teams because none of the teams really shared much with each other," echoed Andy Petree, crew chief for the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt. "Even though they were a Chevy team, they were the enemy. But we had to start doing some developing together. We’d go to the wind tunnel and invite other teams and we’d all take some knowledge from that wind tunnel session."

Petree and all involved realized there was a bigger picture to keep focused on, one worth setting competitive squabbles and on-track incidents aside. At least for a while.  

FROM WINNER TO CHAMPION, PART 2: Championship Material

The objective was clear: build the fastest, best race car possible through a collaborative effort among all the Chevrolet race teams and the best and brightest engineers at GM.

Seems simple enough. 

Luckily, the teams were given quite a head start as the production Monte Carlo was a much closer resemblance to a race car than its predecessor, the Lumina. 

“The Lumina was never intended to be a race car, it was all we had,” said Herb Fishel, executive director of GM racing at the time. “If you just sit and look at the Lumina vs. the Monte Carlo, the Monte Carlo is a pretty sporty looking car. The idea of racing a car and having something in the show room that resembled it, that idea had germinated with our design staff years before it ever became a car in 1995.” 

Yet, there were plenty of challenges facing the group as it looked to take an albeit, "sporty" production Monte Carlo and create a Cup Series winning race car from it, specifically harnessing the latest advances in aerodynamics. The biggest of which being the idea of just how married to the showroom vehicle stock cars still had to be. 

The landscape was changing and the team sensed it. 

"It was probably the end of an era," Fishel said. "Everything that came after that was highly modified. By then, the legitimacy of the term, 'stock car' had been diminishing for years and I think the story really ended as far as that terminology goes with the '95 Monte Carlo. It was the last variation of a believable stock car from what you bought in the show room versus what you saw on the race track.

"We were just a good team. We had a lot of smart guys. Racing at that time was becoming a collaborative thing and we were good at that." 

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'Renegades and bottom feeders'

By the time 1994 rolled around, Terry Laise had been with GM for over two decades and played an integral part in bringing several iterations of Chevrolet race cars to life including the Monte Carlo SS in the early 1980s. 

Responsible for aerodynamics on the '95 Monte Carlo, Laise had a pretty simple view of what teams were looking for out of a new race car.

“We wanted the best lift/drag ratio you could come up with, meaning that it would be fast and still go around the corners,” Laise explained. “We wanted to have the ability to maximize the downforce at the expense of drag, in some instances."

With the production car set and clear goals in mind for the race car, the real work began. 

"On a race car, time is a lot shorter than on production cars. You've got a year maybe at most but back in Detroit, it's a little longer because you know what you're coming out with whether it's a new Monte Carlo, new Lumina, whatever," Woodbridge explained. "We would get clay molds going before teams had seen anything. We had a couple of guys that were magicians in terms of working with clay and getting shapes right. Once you've got that process figured out, you take it to the teams and say, 'OK, we need to start doing this.'"

According to Petree, that's where RCR came in. 

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“At RCR we were tapped by GM to build the first one,” Petree recalled. “The way that process went, the streetcar version of a Monte Carlo, we were able to get full-size print of the profiles of the car and cut accurate templates off of them. We got all the body panels and started putting it together. 

“Basically, on the bumpers, we fabricated a valance on it. They’d make the fenders and the deck lid stock, but the rear bumper had to be shaped with taillights. We got the whole thing finished and rolled it out there and took it from there to be scanned in Detroit. Then a scale, wind tunnel model was made from that scan. That wind tunnel model is still in my shop."

Long before the ensuing hours, days, weeks and months spent in Detroit, the group had a clear vision on certain features of the car in order optimize it aerodynamically. And in conjunction with the cooperation fostered throughout the process, even the production side made concessions along the way, according to Taylor. 

"We got together with the styling group early in the development of this car and we said, 'One of the features we'd like was this squared-off, rear edge of the bumper - a vertical square edge,' and they actually put it into production," Taylor said. "And there were some changes on the roof, so they contributed directly to the success of the car." 

"The production car we started with was good aerodynamically. So, it was easy to do the thing you had to do that we knew from previous cars," Laise expanded. "We learned a lot of the things we needed to know from the earlier Monte Carlo and the Lumina. They understood what was needed from the very beginning."

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From there, the grind commenced, sleepless nights in the wind tunnel with every sheet metal curvature, hard corner and indentation under the magnifying glass. 

Adjustments would be made, tested in the wind tunnel, tweaked again, tested again and eventually, taken to the GM Proving Grounds facility in Mesa, Arizona to be put to the test in real conditions. 

"The policy at that time was that none of that was supposed to be happening," Fishel said. "GM operated under secrecy and those sessions were clandestine because of policy. Overall, at the company, the priority was production work and production cars. The racing group, we were kind of renegades and bottom feeders in a sense. Whenever the time window came up, it didn't matter whether it was in Mesa or the GM wind tunnel, we took the spot. If it was two in the morning, that's when the team would show up with the car and that's when we used it." 

Hours and days ran together, but the labor was bearing fruit. Knaus recalled a test session at Texas World Speedway, a now-defunct 2-mile oval in College Station, Texas, that served as a key catalyst toward the build of future-race-winning Monte Carlos in the No. 24 stable. 

“We tested there and it was really fast," Knaus said. "We went to that test and that car had skull and crossbones on the hood, which was really cool. And yeah, we ended up building some really good cars.”

One of those is the famed Hendrick Motorsports chassis No. 2411, affectionately known as, "Blacker". The car would become the most successful Chevy to ever run under the Hendrick Motorsports banner with Gordon driving it to victory lane 12 times from 1995-1999. It's now on display in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. 

“That car was an aerodynamic step change for us," Knaus said. "We needed something new from the Lumina and we were pushing further forward and were able to get it."

Yet, the process wasn't without its hiccups. 

"I can't remember which team, but we had the full-length template for the car and we fired up the wind tunnel and the template went flying down the tunnel and it just made a mess," Woodbridge laughed. "It's kind of one of those things you always remember. It was, 'Oh my god, we just broke the wind tunnel.' It was a $20,000 mistake." 

At times, the process was slow and laborious. Crew chiefs and teams would provide feedback from test sessions and GM engineers would go back to the drawing board, making minor modifications and then call a meeting of the minds in Detroit to consider feedback and offer updates. 

And near the forefront of it all was Evernham, a crew chief who would reach rarified air over the back half of the decade, largely with outside-the-box thinking and methodology as well a relentless pursuit of perfection. 

Obviously, the days weren't always fun. Some were long, others seemed never ending. But the aura of teamwork guided the group through, and small gestures went a long way to ensure that spirit remained. 

"I will say, Ray is a very particular guy, but the thing that's so cool about Ray, is sometime later you'd get a piece of mail, and it was a, 'Thank You' card from him for doing some test and that always meant a ton," Woodbridge said. "When I got one, when anybody else got them, the guys would always remember that." 

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Rick Hendrick makes his pitch 

Between General Motors and the personnel involved from Chevrolet NASCAR teams, there was no shortage of engineering knowledge and technical acumen when it came to building the 1995 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. 

But all of that research and building would have been for naught if NASCAR had not signed off on it. One of the things those interviewed for this story romanticized about the most was the relative freedom, or wiggle room, there was within the rules at that time. There was some creativity allowed.

"That was an era when divisions were allowed to develop cars, so, NASCAR was not so involved in stipulating everything, designing everything, engineering everything and there was freedom for Ford, Chevy, Dodge and others," Fishel said. "It was up to the engineers and ingenuity to build the best car and bring it to the track." 

Yet, Bill France Jr., NASCAR chief executive officer at the time, as well as Gary Nelson, director of the then-Winston-Cup Series and newly hired chief operating officer, Mike Helton, were still determined to keep as level of a playing field as possible in the interest of competition. Anything the GM group came up with had to stay within the rules, passing the sniff test of NASCAR's brass. 

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"You had to look at the rules and put together a car that met the rules and you had to work in between the rules," Laise said. "Back in those days, there was a lot more working in between the rules than there is today. 

"My recollection is, we selected Hendrick Motorsports as the team to build our submission car. We built a car and we would submit it to NASCAR and say, 'This is what we want,' and they'd make the judgment on whether or not they were willing to accept it."

"There were a lot of discussions with NASCAR," Woodbridge added. "You'd say, 'OK, this is what we want to do. What are the procedures to get this thing through the wind tunnel without upsetting them too much?' There is no question that would happen. You would just try to pick your battles."

All remembered a particular battle, one that involved the Monte Carlo's rear fascia. 

"The rear bumper, the fascia, that was improved on the car, and it was something we knew from the wind tunnel that the wider and squarer it was, even departing from production, the better off we would be," Taylor said.

There was no doubt to the team that the rear fascia, one that performed supremely in terms of aerodynamics, was a sticking point. It was nonnegotiable. 

But when it came time to convince NASCAR, well, that's when one of the world's best businessmen stepped up with an idea that quickly came to the minds of all that were there. Even if a few of the details may vary.

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"And so, we had NASCAR come here to one of the Hendrick garages, I believe," Taylor said. "So, Bill France Jr. came in there and Mike Helton and Gary Nelson, they came in there and we had the car, and we had two different rear ends molded up to fit on the car. We had a less aggressive one and a really aggressive one and it was the less aggressive one that we really wanted.

"So, Rick Hendrick said, 'Put the real aggressive one on there. Show that to NASCAR.' Of course, NASCAR sees it and says, 'Woah, that's too much.' And he said, 'Well, I guess we could do with this other one over here,' which is obviously the one we really wanted. And they agreed as a 'compromise.' Rick being the salesman he is, sold them on the rear bumper fascia that we wanted all along." 

While his salesmanship was a key piece to the puzzle, and the overall success of that race car would finally help lead Hendrick Motorsports to a championship breakthrough after 11 years in NASCAR, its development still wasn't the most important thing to him. The most meaningful thing to Hendrick was the group of people involved. 

Those who sacrificed time and dedicated themselves to the creation of a car that would change the sport forever.

“The car was part of it, but it always came down to the people," Hendrick said. "Our group poured themselves into learning that car. There wasn’t a magic trick. It was just a relentless effort from everyone to get better. That mindset is what made the difference, not just the sheet metal.”

'Hit the track running': 1995 and beyond

Thirty years later, the Chevrolet Monte Carlo developed ahead of the 1995 season stands as a testament of human collaboration, ingenuity and drive. Its success was immediate and overwhelming. 

The car looked incredible. It drove even better. 

"Overall, that was the most excellent car we did," Laise said. "Just everything came out right."

Counting the Clash and both Daytona Duels, a Chevrolet went to victory lane in each of the first 10 races of 1995. It would go on to win 21 of 31 races that season and from 1995-1998, the Monte Carlo won 66 of 128 Cup Series events and all four championships, three for Gordon, one for Labonte (1996). 

Unsurprisingly, the car was met with rave reviews by Chevy drivers. 

“I remember that was one of the best cars that I think we’d ever had or that Chevy ever had,” Labonte said. “I can remember week after week the Ford guys crying about this and crying about that. I know NASCAR had to make some concessions for Ford.”

Indeed, France Jr. still had a sport to run and facilitating competition only improved the product. And obviously, the going wasn't nearly as easy or as fun on the Ford side of things in the early part of that year. 

“Sure, we were out there, campaigning for our camp but it was clearly a great race car," said Mark Martin, driver of the No. 6 Ford at the time. "It was frustrating for us because we felt like Chevrolet did that car to be a race car. That’s how we felt and that’s what it looked like. Ford was not engaged enough in motorsports to do something like that. To shape the Thunderbird into being a better race car. You had to give props to GM and Chevrolet for doing that but also had to remember that they had pretty incredible teams with Gordon and Ray coming of age and of course with Earnhardt and Childress.”

Laise shared a story of a particular such meeting with France as concessions were gradually made. 

"At Atlanta that year, on Saturday evening, I was watching final practice on top of Richard Childress' trailer," Laise said. "Gary Nelson came to the bottom of the trailer and said, 'Mr. France asked me to drive you to the hotel, he wants to talk to you.' And that was unheard of. 

"But he explained to me that the sport couldn't withstand Ford not being competitive and he was approving changes for the Ford. And it kind of went that way - (Ford) won their share of races the rest of the year and so did (Chevrolet). It was a big change but, whatever. My attitude was always, 'What is, is,' and you've got to deal with what is." 

To Martin's point, and what is the overarching theme when it comes to the 1995 season, it was a confluence of factors coming together at the right time to make the year so special and successful for Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and the sport itself. 

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Three of the first six races of the season went to Gordon, serving as an early and loud warning shot to the rest of the field that just maybe, the No. 24 team had arrived as a championship threat a little before most thought it was ready. Pairing Gordon's great and rapidly developing talent and Evernham's cunning, inventiveness and tenacity with a brand new, aerodynamically groundbreaking hot rod was a combination that would rule the sport with an iron fist until the arrival of the new millennium. 

"The timing was great for Jeff and this car was just an amazing car at the time," Fishel said. "If you look at the debut of that particular car versus all the cars after it, particularly the new generation cars, that car hit the track running and had little difficulty ... other than NASCAR's challenge to slow it down." 

Gordon, of course, wasn't the only beneficiary and with the car surging during an era in which NASCAR was peaking in terms of popularity, the 1995 Monte Carlo has long been imprinted on the minds of fans who've been around the sport since. 

"Those were classic cars, visually," Taylor said. "They looked good, they had that smooth front end and smooth surface headlights and they became iconic because teams back then had the same sponsor. The No. 24 rainbow car, the No. 3 car, the No. 5 car with Kellogg's on the hood, those are iconic."

The Gen 4 Monte Carlo ushered in an era of change, and the sport has continued its evolution since, with rules packages and regulations becoming stricter and cars across manufacturer lines becoming more and more similar. 

And in fairness, there were reasons for that. Safety, especially in the wake of Earnhardt's fatal crash in the 2001 DAYTONA 500, became the unquestioned priority in car building. Of course, as the years have gone, manufacturers, teams and NASCAR have also become more financially efficient. 

"We spent a ton of money doing wind tunnel work and testing using high-tech equipment - we're to blame for the fact that the sport got so expensive," Woodbridge said. "We're to blame for NASCAR coming down and saying, 'You can't do this, you can't do that.' We were always trying something. 

"The lesson is, don't give a bunch of creative guys free reign to do something."

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But the '95 Monte Carlo will always serve as a testament to what that kind of creativity and free reign can produce. Woodbridge hopes it will forever be a reminder that the science behind the sport far exceeds any kind of unfair reputation from the outside world. 

"There are so many cool memories. I would say that on a per-hour income level, I barely made more than a floor sweeper," Woodbridge concluded. "But from a pride standpoint and just having a rewarding career in that era and realizing in that era that you're participating in the fastest growing sport on the planet was just amazing. 

"It's interesting. Some people would say, 'In NASCAR all they do is go around in circles.' I don't think they quite grasp the concept that in the garage, there are more PhDs at one time than anywhere else in the world. There's a bunch of brilliant people working really hard in that garage to make that show go on."