Fantasy NASCAR Racing

Tony Stewart's crew chief in 2009.  Grubb was the winning crew chief for Tony Stewart in the 2009 All-Star race at Charlotte.  Grubb also guided Tony Stewart to his first win as an Owner, Driver of a points paying race.  The race was won at Pocono Raceway in the Spring of 2009 and was won on fuel strategy.  During the 2011 season, Grubb led Tony Stewart from a mediocre pre-chase effort to five chase victories and Stewart's third NASCAR Championship.  This was Grubb's first championship. However, Grubb announced that he had been informed of his release prior to Charlotte and would be leaving Stewart-Haas at the end of the season no matter the outcome.  Grubb became the crew chief for Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 team in 2012, replacing Mike Ford.  The pair recorded five wins in 2012 and finished sixth in the points.  2013 was a tough year for Grubb as Hamlin crashed on the final lap of a race at Fontana CA while fighting for the win. Hamlin broke his back; but would refuse surgery and only miss four races.  It was a gutty performance by Hamlin, but he clearly wasn't at 100% until late in the year.  On the final race of the season Hamlin broke through and found victory lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This kept alive a streak few crew chiefs enjoy as having earned at least one win every year they have been a crew chief (even counting the four race stint for Johnson).  In 2014 Hamlin again worked with Grubb and they posted one win; finishing third in points.  Grubb was moved to work with Carl Edwards in 2016, who had moved to Joe Gibbs Racing from Roush Racing.  They won two major events that season; claiming victory at the Coke 600 and later at Darlington in the Southern 500.  In 2016, Grubb returned to Hendrick Motorsports to become the vehicle production director, which oversees chassis manufacturing.  In 2017, he was named crew chief for the #5 car of Kasey Kahne for the last 9 races of the season starting at New Hampshire. On November 1st, it was announced that Grubb will be the crew chief for William Byron for the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season.  After having such great success in both the Truck series and Xfinity series William Byron moved to the Cup series in 2018 with great aspirations. He was paired with crew chief Darian Grubb who had shown great success as a Cup chief.  The season saw Byron have growing pains as he struggled to adapt to the faster, more high powered Cup cars. The duo only had four Top 10 finishes, with a best of sixth at Pocono. For 2019 a major surprise was announced as owner Rick Hendrick split up the seven time Championship pairing of Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson. Knaus was moved over to call the shots on Byron's car in 2019.  In 2021, Grubb left Hendrick again and went to Chip Ganassi Racing as their Director of Performance.  Later in 2021, Ganassi announced that he would get out of NASCAR Racing and sold his team to TrackHouse Racing.  Most of the Ganassi employees retained their jobs under the new ownership; so it’s possible Grubb will continue on there.  To date Grubb has 23 Cup wins including: The two wins as a temporary chief for Johnson; one race win with Casey Mears (Mears only career win); 11 wins with Tony Stewart, and six with Denny Hamlin.  Notable wins include Daytona 500 (2006) ; Coke 600 (2007 and 2015) and Southern 500 (2015).