Despite title, crew chief Darian Grubb’s future is in limbo

Despite title, crew chief Darian Grubb’s future is in limbo

 

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

 

(November 20, 2011)

 

HOMESTEAD, Fla.—For someone who says, “You’re fired,” to key employees almost as often as Donald Trump, Tony Stewart achieved a remarkable level of success in winning his third NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

 

Less than two hours after playing a pivotal role in Stewart’s rally to win Sunday’s Ford 400 and the Cup title in the process, crew chief Darian Grubb acknowledged he had been given his pink slip before the fifth Chase race, at Charlotte, effective at the end of the season.

 

In June, Stewart jettisoned director of competition Bobby Hutchens and has yet to name a replacement.

 

Nevertheless, with Grubb on the pit box—as a lame duck for the final five races—Stewart won five times in NASCAR’s 10-race playoff and secured the title, on a tiebreaker, in the most closely contested battle in the sport’s history.

 

Before Stewart arrived in the media center, Grubb addressed his status.

 

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen,” Grubb said. “But I was told early in the Chase before Charlotte that next year I was not going to be here. We just kept fighting and doing everything we had to do every week.

 

“It did not change anything, what the outcome was going to be.  We fought as if we were going to fight to win this championship, and we did it, and now we’ll just see in this coming week how things change.”

 

Grubb said he’ll have to discuss with Stewart whether staying with Stewart-Haas Racing is an option.

 

Stewart danced around the subject after the race.

 

“There’s a lot of things in the offseason and decisions that have to be made,” Stewart said. “Obviously, we wanted to get through this championship battle first, and we’ll sit down as a group, obviously, this week and figure out the direction of our program.

 

“I know what his status is for the rest of the night, and I’m going to get him drunk.”