Darian Grubb ‘surprised’ by JGR decision – Nascar

Grubb indicated he was placed on notice early on in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs, where he helped guide Edwards to a fifth-place finish in the overall standings. The situation was similar to 2011, when Grubb was informed mid-Chase that he was unlikely to return to Stewart-Haas Racing, where he ultimately helped secure a Sprint Cup championship with driver/owner Tony Stewart that season.
 
“I was somewhat surprised,” Grubb told SiriusXM. “I mean, the first conversation I had about it was one week into the Chase. I was told at that point that I need to get nine more solid weeks in. I was like, ‘well, I’ve been through this before.’ Last time, it was six weeks; this time, it was nine. I knew something was going to come up with a change, and I guess fifth in points just wasn’t good enough in some people’s eyes, and five points away from running at Homestead.
 
“I knew I was going to be making some changes. I didn’t know what it was going to be at that point, but I had to start thinking about it. And then went on and found out I wasn’t going to be in a crew chief position, so I had to explore some options.”
 
Grubb landed with Hendrick Motorsports on Monday, returning to the organization that had helped jump-start his NASCAR career from 2003-08. Though the departure was an unexpected one, Grubb says he’ll look back with fondness on his years working at JGR with drivers Denny Hamlin and Edwards.

“The way it goes through, we had really good performance,” Grubb said. “We won every year. We were in contention for a championship all the way to the end most of the time. It was a good group to work with, they had a lot of good people there, and I think we accomplished a lot of good things. So it’s definitely nothing I’m going to look back and be disappointed in.”

In his new role with Hendrick, the 40-year-old Grubb will work hand-in-hand with vehicle technical director Kenny Francis to oversee all aspects of manufacturing race cars for the four-team organization. He said that he expects to maintain a regular presence at the track on race weekends and that he may have more freedom to potentially spend more time with his family, but said it would still take some adjustment to transition away from the role of crew chief.
 
“I’ll still be there and I’ll probably be pecking on people’s shoulders and trying to get up there and get in their ears and do whatever I can do,” Grubb said, “but it’s definitely going to be a shock to my system after so many years of doing that and hope I can add some benefit. I tell you, it’s going to be nice being able to actually say I want to take a weekend off to be able to spend with my family or something if I want to. I’ve only had one weekend off in 11 years and that was when I got married.”