Click here for linkTony Stweart showed his appreciation to his pit crew chief Darian Grubb for winning the NASCAR "Sprint Cup" by firing him.
Stewart, winless during regular season, won 5 races in the "Chase" (last 10 races) to win the "Cup" by one point over Carl Edwards.
I am glad to see Grubb picked up by a good race team in Joe Gibbs Racing.
I still can't believe Stewart fired him after winning the cup.
I feel sorry for him to have to work with Denny Hamlin.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Joe Gibbs Racing grabbed championship-winning crew chief Darian Grubb and paired him with Denny Hamlin in hopes of pushing the driver the final step toward the Sprint Cup title.
Grubb was introduced Friday as crew chief of Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota. He takes over for Mike Ford, the only crew chief Hamlin has had at NASCAR's top level.
Ford was fired earlier this week, in part because Grubb was available.
"We were at a point that we felt like we needed to just go a different direction," team president J.D. Gibbs said about Ford. "As we started to have those conversations, the Darian piece kind of came out. We looked at a lot of different options, and Mike has a lot of gifts. Without getting into too much detail, some of our conversation centered around what is the best fit for JGR long term, and we feel like this was it."
Hamlin nearly dethroned five-time champion Jimmie Johnson in the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. But he faltered in the season finale and hasn't been the same since.
He dropped off considerably this last season, barely making the Chase. He ended the year with just one victory, a career low in top-10 finishes and he was ninth in points.
So JGR made a run at Grubb once he was formally let go by Tony Stewart a week after guiding Stewart to the championship.