Grubb out at Stewart-Haas Racing

UPDATE #2 This rumor is upgraded to 'fact' today. Crew chief Darian Grubb, who made several key calls in helping #14-Tony Stewart win his third Sprint Cup championship on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, is looking for a job. Grubb said after Stewart won the title by a tiebreaker over Carl Edwards that he was told midway through the Chase at Charlotte that he would not be back with Stewart-Haas Racing in 2012. Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com that Grubb has been offered a job to return to Hendrick Motorsports, where worked for four seasons as an engineer and administrative assistant. Sources also said Grubb, who won a Daytona 500 as an interim crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, has been contacted by Michael Waltrip Racing and several other teams about a crew chief job. Stewart declined to discuss whether winning the title has changed his mind on Grubb possibly returning.

Among the speculation is that Stewart will hire former Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief Greg Zipadelli to be his director of competition and Steve Addington, the crew chief for #22-Kurt Busch at Penske Racing, to be his crew chief. JGR president J.D. Gibbs told ESPN.com before Sunday's finale that he planned to have Zipadelli, who is under contract for 2012 and beyond, back next season with Joey Logano and the #20 team. Sources said Addington is not expected to return to Penske Racing, but could not confirm where he would go. Grubb said he would sit down with Stewart this week and see where things stand. Asked if winning the title would change things, he said, "It all depends.' ESPN

11/17/11 Grubb is expected to be promoted to Director of Competition at Stewart Haas Racing next season, replaced atop the pit box by current #22-Kurt Busch Penske Racing crew chief Steve Addington. Penske Racing holds an option year on Addington's contract, however, and sources say team owner Roger Penske has not yet agreed to grant him his release. Sirius Speedway

11/16/11 On Tuesday, November 15th, the final guest on the weekly NASCAR Teleconference was Darian Grubb, the crew chief of the #14 Office Depot Mobil 1 Chevy driven by Tony Stewart. The 14 team has a 3-point deficit in the standings and is entering this weekend as one of the closest points battles in NASCAR history. Besides much talk about the Chase, a couple questions were asked about Grubb's future with Stewart Haas Racing after this season.
Q. There's been so much speculation about the team. You guys have been without a competition director for half of the year. Are you going to be back with Stewart-Haas next year?
DARIAN GRUBB: We'll leave that to after Sunday and figure out what's going to happen there. Our goal is to win the championship and we'll decide everything else after that.
Q. Along those same lines, has it been difficult at all to work through the last few months with all the rumors and uncertainty and not knowing necessarily who is going to be in what position where next year?
DARIAN GRUBB: Definitely not. We've still got the same goals we've always had that we want to go out and win the championship. Winning races is the way to do that. What we've done the last nine weeks, we've shown that we have the capability to do that. We're almost 50-50 on that, so hopefully we can continue that streak and get it to be a 50% deal and win at Homestead. From the NASCAR Teleconference Transcript