NASCAR Cup Series

Title-winning crew chief out of job

Published Nov. 21, 2011 3:59 a.m. ET

foxsports

Crew chief Darian Grubb spent Sunday night celebrating a NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. When he wakes up Monday, he’ll be looking for work.

Grubb, who guided Tony Stewart to NASCAR’s top-shelf title, was informed in October that he would not be back in the position next year.

“It still is (baffling) to me, honestly,” Grubb allowed, as he addressed reporters in the hours after his team won the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “I’m not really sure what’s going to happen now. I was told early on in the Chase. … I wouldn’t be here. But we kept fighting and it didn’t change anything we were going to do as a team.

“Now that we’ve done that (win a championship) I guess we’ll start talking. We’re going to celebrate first.’’

There have been rumors about Grubb moving to Hendrick Motorsports, where he made a name for himself – filling in for a suspended Chad Knaus and leading Jimmie Johnson to the 2006 Daytona 500.

Grubb did not rule out staying with Stewart-Haas Racing, but Stewart was non-committal when asked about his crew chief’s future.

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

“There’s a lot of things in the offseason and decisions that have to be made. We wanted to get through this championship battle and then we’ll figure out (the) direction of our program.”