SUPER SUB: Interim Crew Chief Credits Boss for No. 48 Team's Success

(Mar 17, 04:41 AM)

By David Poole, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Mar. 17--HAMPTON, Ga. -- After Jimmie Johnson won his second race of the 2006 Nextel Cup season on Sunday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, interim crew chief Darian Grubb was asked by a reporter if people are starting to recognize him at the grocery store.

"I don't think I've had time to go to the grocery store since all of this started," Grubb said with a chuckle.

The "all of this" he's talking about has been his run as the man in charge of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team at the track on race weekends with Chad Knaus serving a four-race suspension for a rules infraction found after Daytona 500 qualifying last month.

All that's happened to Grubb, a 30-year-old from Floyd, Va., since has been a win in the Daytona 500, a runner-up finish at California and another win last weekend that has Johnson first in the Nextel Cup standings going into this weekend's Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

There's reason to expect Grubb can finish out his run as Johnson's crew chief with another successful race. Johnson has four top-five finishes in his past five starts in Atlanta, including a victory in the fall race in 2004, and he comes into this weekend riding a wave of momentum.

"Chad's leadership is second to none, and we really miss that," Grubb said after Johnson passed Matt Kenseth on the final turn of the final lap to win at Las Vegas. "But then it's also given us a chance to expand on our role.

"We get to grow within our positions and it makes us a tighter team. We really cannot wait for Chad to get back, to put his leadership back in his team." Johnson and Grubb are quick to point out that Knaus' suspension does not keep him from working on the No. 48 Chevrolets at the shop or from having input on what happens at the track by talking to them on the phone at the end of a day's practice about how the car is working and what changes might be made.

It even runs deeper than that, Johnson said.

"Chad started this race team and picked Darian to be the race engineer and has brought him through the organization," Johnson said. "Chad built this team and has been at home working on the races ahead of us so we're prepared and ready when we get to them.

"Our cars have been very strong from all the work that Darian and Chad and everyone has done over the offseason. It's just really a team effort. I'm very pleased with this start and now we're all more confident in our abilities."

Knaus can return to the track at Bristol next weekend, but Grubb also will be there on top of the pit box, too, right where he was before Knaus was sent home from Daytona's Speedweeks. That familiarity, Johnson said, has helped make the interim arrangement work.

"We have a couple of other crew chiefs who could jump in at Hendrick Motorsports," Johnson said. "But I didn't want to start that communications process over. Darian has been there. He's extremely talented and deserving of the chance."

Grubb was working at a Volvo dealership in Greensboro after getting his engineering degree from Virginia Tech when he posted his resume on an Internet site as someone who'd like to get into racing. That led to a job with Petty Enterprises and, eventually, to Hendrick Motorsports.

His stint as crew chief has been educational, Grubb said.

"We're improving our qualifying and working hard on every pit stop," he said. "We keep learning. It might not be the same track or the same circumstances, but it still goes back in the back of your mind. The things we've built in the last three years I've been here and the four years Jimmie has been with Hendrick, there's a whole lot to build on."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

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