DARIAN GRUBB, crew chief, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What did you work on while you were away from the race track?
“Same thing we work on every week. Just working hard in the shop, working with the guys, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing did a great job. The entire FedEx Toyota group did a great job at the race track, too. Still fighting hard every week.”
Did you learn anything about your race team while you were away from the track?
“The same thing I knew before, we have a great bunch of guys. Everybody stepped up and did 110 percent of the job to recover from the weakness we had here at the race track. I can’t fault them for anything that happened with performances. They had good runs, we had some circumstances outside of our control a couple times, but we were pretty happy with the performance.”
Was being away from the track a blessing in disguise to help you prepare for the Chase?
“That’s definitely something people say. You take anyone out of their work for six weeks and have them come to work, there’s a few things you have to have them do when they get there Monday morning. We’re definitely behind. I feel like we’re working really hard on trying to make a lot of things better, so I was able to put a little more effort into some of those things maybe. But, not being at the race track and working with the race team and especially working with Denny (Hamlin) is something I feel like I lost a lot of ground on. We’re six weeks behind now and we have to keep that communication line for this 10 race Chase.”
Did you focus some attention on preparing the team for the Chase?
“Those things are always in the works and all three teams at Joe Gibbs Racing in general has been working ahead and trying to make everything better for the Chase. That’s the way our season works. We’re trying to get our best pieces on the track now for the championship. Me being there doesn’t allow me to work on that more because I have more people walking in my door instead of being able to concentrate on the race team as well.”
Do you know what happened in Indy that took you away from the race track for six races?
“The same parts that have been in there, it was actually new parts that week on our car. It was a nut plate that is used as an aircraft fastener and it didn’t have enough torque on it and backed off and came loose. It’s something that we’ve taken out of the cars and have never seen again and never seen before. It’s a 27 cent part that came loose, wasn’t torqued correctly.”
Was it intentional or a gray area?
“No, not a gray area, not anything intentional. There’s not any real performance gain there. Everybody in the garage uses those same covers and they came loose the week they shouldn’t have.”
What is the most difficult part of the inspection process for the team and crew chief?
“It’s nothing different than any other week. NASCAR does a great job of policing the sport. It’s the same templates and the same work that you have to do every week. Nothing really changes, there is no part. You have to meet NASCAR’s rules and you have to do that every week.”
How do you feel the communication is now with the team?
“We’re still talking as a team, but you don’t get that personal communication. We’ve done a lot of testing that was already scheduled for this time for us, so we missed a lot of meetings that we were going to have. I don’t have a lot of face time with Denny (Hamlin) since I’m at the shop where we used to spend all the time at the race track, he’s pretty busy during the week and so am I. We don’t get a lot of that. I feel like that’s a little bit behind. We left and went down and did a Homestead tire test for Goodyear with Sam Hornish. I volunteered to do that because I don’t want to take away from the other guys. Since I had a little bit of time, I volunteered for those types of things. It helps the performance of all Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas.”
What’s your strategy towards the new Chase format?
“It does change around somewhat. It just depends on the performance of your previous race. We’re basically looking at three race seasons right now. We want to pull a win off at the first of those and then the other ones don’t matter because you transfer. But you’re still going to try hard. To get the win you have to have the best finish possible because you’re competing against the best. The top-10 is what’s going to matter. You have to finish top-10 in each of the three races in each segment to guarantee you’re going to move on.”
Did anything become clearer over the last six weeks?
“No, we’re still working on a lot of things and concentrating on winning a championship for Joe Gibbs Racing in the FedEx Toyota right now.”
Where is Joe Gibbs Racing in terms of being ready to compete for the Chase?
“I’d say we’re probably 80 percent right now. Other projects we started last January and we’ve been working on it all year. Our wind tunnel group and our chassis group and the design engineers have been working really hard. We’re bringing a lot of things to the race track and keep getting better. We’re hoping that you see the speeds on the chart today. The 11 (Denny Hamlin) wasn’t fastest but the 18 (Kyle Busch) and 20 (Matt Kenseth) were right up there. I can see the fruits of some of that labor on the race track.”
