Inside the Garage with the 25 crew chief Darian Grubb (cont'd)

Q: Your team seems to be on a roll now. How good can you be?

Grubb: We went from very likely being a go-or-go home car and out of the top 35 all the way to being up to 16th in points. It's a hard row to hoe, but we've really enjoyed it. It shows that hard work makes everything pay off. We just never stopped chugging toward the front.

We're still further behind than we want to be, just because of some of the bad luck we've had. But I think we've proven our capability as a Chase team, and I think moving forward everyone will be looking for that.

2006 Daytona 500

Darian Grubb helped Jimmie Johnson get his championship season off and running.

• Race Results, click here
• Race Review, click here

Q: With only two races left before the Chase to the Nextel Cup championship, are you already starting to build toward next year?

Grubb: Our goal for the season was the top 15, with a real shot at being in the Chase. And I think we've gotten that. If we go back and see the way the season started and we see some of the bad luck we've had -- if we could go back and instead have a stretch like what we've had since then -- I think everyone can see that we would be a Chase contender.

Q: Do you feel like Casey is sort of flying under the radar at Hendrick, which next season will include three legitimate Cup superstars in Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. as its three other drivers?

Grubb: It's one of those things where we consider Casey a superstar, too. If you're one of the top 43 drivers in Cup, you've got to be a superstar. People would give their left arm to go and try to do this. We've got guys who are fighting their hardest every day just to come to the racetrack and work for Hendrick Motorsports. They know this is the place they want to be. [As a driver at Hendrick], you've got 550 people supporting you and behind you. They don't care which team they're with; they just want to see a Hendrick car in Victory Lane, and that's all that matters to them.

Q: You subbed for the suspended Chad Knaus as crew chief for the No. 48 car of Jimmie Johnson at the beginning of the 2006 season and won two of the four races you worked in that capacity, including the Daytona 500. What was that like and what did the experience teach you?

Grubb: When I was working with that team, those were teammates I had been with for four years [as a lead engineer based with the Johnson team]. It was a lot easier to come into because those were the same guys I worked with every week anyway. And I was able to just step in and take a role where I kept doing the job I used to do -- we still had Chad back at the shop, doing all the other stuff. All I had to do was continue the job I was doing at the time and just do a little extra media stuff on the side. The team just ran very well on its own. To be able to step in and take leadership of that was a great experience for me. It taught me more about what being a crew chief is all about.

But then coming into this deal with the 25 team, it was a completely different deal because everything was new. We had a new driver. We were building all new cars. We had the COT coming in. Basically, I was working with a whole new group of guys. I think we've done a very good job trying to work together and get ourselves better throughout the season.

Q: Did so much success so quickly for you as a crew chief make it maybe look too easy from the outside?

Grubb: You have to have everything in place. That's probably one of the biggest things I've learned this year. Actually being in the full role of crew chief, you see all the little details of the pit crews, the personnel in the shop, and the dynamics between all the people you have working on the team, the things you have to manage every day just with the guys being on the road. Basically we're a big tight-knit family where we travel everywhere and do everything together.

Just looking from the outside, you say, "That's easy. Those guys get to do what they love." What I tell those people is, "Yeah, well, let's see you try to do this 38 weeks a year. Spend all that time away from your family, plus all the testing and everything we do on top of that." It's a tough life, just trying to keep everybody's psyche up, to keep them ready to go and keep them motivated to show up for work every day and make sure they go to the racetrack without being beat down from the last 37 weeks. It's a tough ordeal, but everybody here loves being here and they know that's what we have to do to be able to get through the season.

Q: Talk about how you went from working at the Volvo plant to working in NASCAR, where your career began at Petty Enterprises.

Grubb: As I was going through school at Virginia Tech, getting a mechanical engineering degree, I took an internship with Volvo Trucks in Dublin, Va. I took a full-time position with them after I graduated, designing heavy trucks -- dump trucks and over-the-road tractors. I was still doing the racing on weekends for fun.

I just took a shot and put up a resume on a free Web site. Then two weeks later I got a call from Kyle Petty. ... Two weeks later, I went ahead and told my boss I was going to be leaving to do my hobby for a full-time job. I never looked back.

Q: What was it like walking into the fabled Petty shop the first time?

Grubb: It was huge to be able to go in there and actually talk to The King and Kyle Petty and those guys. It was really a family company. I really enjoyed my time working there.

Q: Why did you leave?

Grubb: I was working on the 43 car, and things were changing. They were moving [driver] John Andretti out. A lot of the guys I had worked with for three years were talking about maybe moving on. I decided it was time for me to move on and take the next step in my life. ... I got a job the next week [with Hendrick].

Q: And now you're living the dream?

Grubb: Absolutely. It's very tough being on the road so much, but I'm one of the lucky ones. My wife is a schoolteacher. She's able to work part-time [with Hendrick] on the weekends and especially during the summers when she's off. She actually scores part-time with the 24 team. So she's able to come on the road with me a little bit, and spend some time together -- because even when I'm home, there's very little time to spend together."