Where will Grubb land? JGR?
12/06/11 More evidence that AR1.com's inside sources were correct on Grubb and Mike Ford – Mike Ford was let go Tuesday as crew chief for #11-Denny Hamlin after a disappointing season in which the duo failed to contend for the championship. "I'm kind of relieved," Ford told The Associated Press. "It had been dragging on for so long, I'm actually relieved there's finally a resolution." Joe Gibbs Racing team owner Joe Gibbs met with ex-Tony Stewart championship-winning crew chief Darian Grubb last week in Las Vegas, the day after the season-ending awards ceremony. Grubb has also toured the JGR facility. Ford said JGR officials made no mention of Grubb in telling Ford he was out late Tuesday. Associated Press
12/01/11 According to AR1.com sources, Mike Ford is out at Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR). We hear that Darian Grubb, who helped Tony Stewart win this year's title, will replace him in 2012 on the No. 11, but if that falls through Jason Ratcliff will step up from the Nationwide series.
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| Darian Grubb (L) with Tony Stewart. Grubb brings Stewart a Sprint Cup title and then Stewart fires him. Smart. Real smart. |
11/29/11 Rick Hendrick talks to media: Rick Hendrick held a teleconference Monday and discussed a wide variety of issues:
About Darian Grubb:
A: I have had discussions with Darian. When he left (at the end of 2008), we told him we'd always have a place for him if he wanted to come back. Darian is a very smart guy. I know he's entertaining a lot of offers out there. We don't have a crew chief role. We have an engineering role that we think Darian would be really good in. But at the end of the day it's got to be what Darian wants to do. I know he is close to all of our people and our guys are close to him. We'd love to have him back in the organization, but I quite honestly don't know where he's going to end up. We would like to have him, but whether or not he's going to decide he wants to be in the role we've offered him or he wants to do something somewhere else, I'm just not sure.
Crew chiefs for 2012:
A: Yes. [All teams will have the] Same crew chief-driver combination.
The plane wreck:
A: We were going into Key West (Fla.), and some kind of failure with the brakes, and we went off the end of the runway. Of course, you don't remember everything exactly how it happened, but somehow, my seat belt was on, and something came lose in the seat itself. I hit the bulkhead and my wife. I think my chest and head went into the seat in front of me, and that's where I got my (broken) ribs and had a concussion. Broke four ribs and my clavicle. We were very fortunate. We were glad that it wasn't any worse than it was. We're healing up, and we don't have any of the answers yet on exactly what happened there, but a lot of smart people are involved, so we'll get that figured out here pretty soon, I hope. Chevy PR
11/29/11 Darian Grubb will take his seat at the head table in Las Vegas this Friday night as 2011's Sprint Cup Champion Crew Chief. His future after that, however, remains a question mark. Grubb provided few details in an interview for Wednesday night's NASCAR Performance Live broadcast on MRN Radio. "I'm definitely going around, talking to a lot of people and trying to decide what direction I want to go in," Grubb said.
"I've talked to pretty much everybody in the garage area at some point. I've got it narrowed down to a couple of choices now and I'm trying to make the best out of that situation and see what I want to do. I wish them the best there with everything they're doing at Stewart-Haas Racing, but I'll be moving on hopefully to greener pastures somewhere else." Motor Racing Network