Darian Grubb, crew chief for Tony Stewart, skirted the question of his future at Stewart-Haas Racing in a Tuesday NASCAR teleconference. The final Sprint Cup race of the year will be Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway with Stewart trailing Carl Edwards by only three points in his quest for a third NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
“We'll leave that to after Sunday and figure out what's going to happen there. Our goal is to win the championship and we'll decide everything else after that,” Grubb said when asked if he was going to be back with Stewart-Haas Racing next year.
Grubb could remain as crew chief, move up to competition director or leave the organization. He and Stewart are good friends off the track but Stewart is good at separating business from his personal relationships.
“I would say it's good," Grubb said of his relationship with Stewart. “We've gotten to be pretty good friends on and off the racetrack. We've spent a lot of time together. We know each other a little better than we should at times. We eat, sleep, and live together pretty much half the time at the racetrack, and try to accomplish on the racetrack.
“So it's a tough dynamic, kind of a love-hate brother relationship at times. When you feel each of you needs to do something, but it's the best of times when you can go out there and make things work and get on top of the victory stage and take those pictures with the trophy.”
Stewart-Haas, home also to Ryan Newman who is currently ninth in the points, has been without a competition director since the team released Bobby Hutchens in June. Although Stewart, co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing with Gene Haas, said at the time that there has been a restructuring of management within the team’s competition department, the position has not been filled.
Grubb was asked if it has been difficult not knowing who is going to fill the positions. “Definitely not,” he said. “We've still got the same goals we've always had that we want to go out and win the championship. Winning races is the way to do that. What we've done the last nine weeks, we've shown that we have the capability to do that. We're almost 50-50 on that, so hopefully we can continue that streak and get it to be a 50% deal and win at Homestead.”
Having Stewart as the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing makes a unique relationship as Stewart is the boss most of the time but Grubb is in charge at the track.
“It's definitely got its ups and downs with that,” Grubbs said of the relationship, “because Tony does a really good job at separating the two on Monday through Thursday. He puts the owner hat on and does what he has to do to try to help run the organization and those things.
“When Friday through Sunday comes along, we get to the racetrack, and he switches into driver mode. He works for me at that point, and we do a really good job separating the two to where we get to the racetrack, and we have a common goal. We run towards that every week.”
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