Darian Grubb
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
October 9, 1975
_(cropped).jpg) Grubb at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2023 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Darian Kent Grubb October 9, 1975 Floyd, Virginia, U.S. |
| Sport | |
| Country | United States |
| Sport | NASCAR Cup Series |
| Team | 87. Trackhouse Racing |
Darian Kent Grubb (born October 9, 1975) is an American NASCAR mechanic, engineer, and crew chief who is currently employed at Trackhouse Racing as the Director of Performance. He has collected 1 championship and 24 wins (including 1 Daytona 500 win) as a crew chief.
Previously, Grubb worked for Hendrick Motorsports in a technical director position in 2020, 2019, 2017 and 2016 and as a crew chief for their No. 24 of William Byron in 2018. Prior to that, he worked for Joe Gibbs Racing as a crew chief for two of their NASCAR Cup Series teams: the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin from 2012 to 2014 and the No. 19 of Carl Edwards in 2015. Prior to that, Grubb worked for Stewart–Haas Racing from 2009 to 2011 as the crew chief for team co-owner Tony Stewart, winning the Cup Series championship with him in 2011. Before that, he had another stint at Hendrick Motorsports from 2003 to 2008, starting his career as an engineer and was later the interim crew chief in 2006 for Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 after the suspension of Chad Knaus at the start of the season, where Johnson would go on to win the 2006 Daytona 500.[1] Grubb then got his first permanent crew chiefing job in 2007, working on Hendrick's No. 25 of Casey Mears before moving into an engineering managerial role with the team in 2008.
Grubb was born in Floyd, Virginia, a small town in Floyd County, which had only one stoplight and an estimated 14,000 residents. Floyd is also the birthplace and childhood home of NASCAR legend Curtis Turner. His love of racing began to develop during his time at Floyd County High School. He built Late Model stock cars that competed in races throughout Virginia and the Carolinas. Grubb made a lasting impression upon his graduation in 1993, ranking 6th in a 156-pupil class. As a senior at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (more commonly known as Virginia Tech) in 1998, Grubb was influential in the design of the school's "Tinker Bell" ATV used in competition. He graduated with a mechanical engineering degree that year through a co-op program with Volvo Trucks and General Motors. Grubb quoted this about his association with the co-op program:
"That was a really good program. I worked within Volvo Heavy Trucks for the first four years [of college]. I was basically able to do five years of college with alternating semesters, so I got a year-and-a-half of work experience by the time I graduated. I was a junior design engineer and worked with people designing truck interiors - seats, dashes and all the integral parts of the interior of tractor-trailer rigs. My senior year [in college] I went to General Motors and worked on the Cadillac program that summer, basically working on mechanical systems, warranty reduction and power-steering systems. That was a good experience for me because it was my first time to actually move out of state and I got a chance to work with one of the Big Three auto companies."[2][3][4]
