Knaus, who is Hendrick Motorsports' vice-president of competition, oversaw the program to bring a modified Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the centenary Le Mans event, to honor NASCAR's 75th season.
He said the effort required to get the stock car to the start of the race was a huge achievement, regardless of it finishing the 24 hours in 39th position and completing 285 laps.
The car qualified ahead of the pace of all the GTE Am contenders and ran as high as 27th until it suffered a transaxle issue on Sunday morning, leading to a lengthy repair.
"I feel like we had already captured the trophy right when they dropped the green flag," said Knaus. "The thing I'm most proud of is that this wasn't really anybody but a few people's full-time job.
"Everybody accepted this task as a passion project and something that they wanted to participate in. And when you get people like that put together, you can do anything."
Source: Autosport