HOMESTEAD, Fla. – We’ve already taken a look at Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus’ career together as a driver-crew chief pairing by the numbers.
But as the tandem prepares to make its last start together Sunday at Homestead-Miami, we thought we would reminisce about what was going on in the world when Johnson and Knaus made their very first start together on Feb. 17, 2002.
On that fateful Sunday:
- The No. 1 song in America was “Always On Time” By Ja Rule featuring Ashanti, but “How You Remind Me” by Nickelback would go on to be the song of the year
- “John Q.” was the No. 1 movie in theaters, though “Spider-Man” would ultimately be the highest-grossing movie of the year
- The No. 1 album in the country was Alan Jackson’s “Drive”
- “Friends” was the No. 1 rated show on television
- The New England Patriots were two weeks removed from winning their first Super Bowl (XXXVI)
- The original Apple iPod had been released less than four months earlier
- “American Idol” was set to make its debut in fewer than four months, and Kelly Clarkson would go on to win the first season of the competition.
- The Winter Olympics were taking place in Salt Lake City
- Ward Burton won the Daytona 500
- Ten days later, Alicia Keys would win five Grammy awards, including one for Best New Artist and one for Song of the Year for “Fallin’”
- Eminem’s “The Eminem Show” was not yet released, but would go on to become the biggest selling album of the year at more than 7.5 million copies
- A gallon of gas was approximately $1.35
- George W. Bush was president of the United States of America
- Alex Bowman was nine years old
- Chase Elliott was seven years old
- William Byron was four years old
Plenty has changed since then, but there has been one constant – the dynamic duo of Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus on the No. 48 team.
They’ll team up for their final start together – No. 602 – Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.