CONCORD, N.C. -- When Darian Grubb knew a change was in his future in his NASCAR career, one organization came to mind.
"Obviously it was the first phone call I made because this place feels like home to me," Grubb said of Hendrick Motorsports. "It was really exciting for me to be able to make the move."
And Hendrick Motorsports was just excited to have him back.
"It’s a unique opportunity for us to bring in a championship crew chief, and there’s not many of those in the sport," Hendrick Motorsports General Manager Doug Duchardt said. "Obviously he's a very capable car guy and someone that understands our company and our culture."
Grubb originally joined Hendrick Motorsports in January 2003. He served as lead race engineer for the No. 48 Sprint Cup team from 2003-2006 and was interim crew chief during the first four races of its 2006 championship-winning campaign, leading Jimmie Johnson to a pair of victories, including the Daytona 500.
Grubb earned one win as crew chief for driver Casey Mears in 2007 before being named engineering manager for the Nos. 5 and 88 Hendrick Motorsports teams for 2008. In 2009, he moved into a crew chief role at Stewart-Haas Racing, where in three seasons he won 11 races and the 2011 Sprint Cup championship with Tony Stewart. Grubb then joined Joe Gibbs Racing, winning nine races with multiple drivers from 2012-2015. As a crew chief, he has 23 career Sprint Cup victories.
Coming back to the organization has been at times a bit surreal for Grubb.
"Just talking to people who have families and their kids are in high school now or in college and it’s just amazing how things change," he smiled. "I didn’t have kids when I left here and now I’ve got two and one of them is 7 years old. It’s just amazing how things change."
But after a month to get settled in to his new position, he acknowledged that it's "becoming more and more natural."
Grubb took over the newly created role of vehicle production director, where he oversees every aspect of race car manufacturing for the 11-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champions.
He assumes responsibility for production operations in the Hendrick Motorsports chassis and body groups. He works alongside vehicle technical director Kenny Francis to support and grow the company’s overall car development capabilities while collaborating across vehicle engineering, vehicle production and four Sprint Cup teams. Both Grubb and Francis report to Duchardt.
Jimmie Johnson said having two former crew chiefs in those positions is a valuable asset to the organization.
"Having those two guys -- recent, competitive crew chiefs -- the way they can work on projects at the shop, they work on it as a crew chief would," he said.
Grubb explained it by noting that he and Francis "have been in the fire and know what it takes to make a team run."
"On our vehicle side, you’ve got two experienced race-winning crew chiefs like Kenny and Darian help driving the evolution of your race cars and working closely with our current four crew chiefs, that’s a lot of capability and a lot of expertise," Duchardt said. "I feel like it puts us in a very good position in the future to continue to design, develop, and manufacture race-winning cars."
Grubb said he's excited to see how much he and Francis can work together to continue to improve the organization's performance. And that excitement goes all the way to the top.
"When you’ve got Kenny Francis and Darian Grubb leading your engineering effort both in chassis and aero and everything else," Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said, "I don’t know two better guys in the garage area than those two.”