The crew chief behind Stewart's sudden success (cont'd)

"It was more about getting all the people in the places they needed to be. Who's the best person at being the tire guy? Who's the best person at doing shocks? Who's the best person at doing the chassis adjustments and setups and all those things? To make sure we had all those people in the right spots to get the strength that we needed was probably the most important thing we had to do. Luckily, we evidently hit it pretty close."

No kidding. But one of the first key positions that had to be filled was the one Grubb filled himself. He said he didn't really know Stewart other than occasionally seeing him around the Cup garage prior to being summoned to meet with him to discuss the position.

Grubb, 33, certainly was no stranger to knowing what it takes to win races. His first win as crew chief came in the 2006 Daytona 500, when he subbed for the suspended Chad Knaus and helped driver Jimmie Johnson to Victory Lane. He also won with Johnson at Las Vegas that year.

His only full season as a crew chief came in 2007 when he guided Casey Mears to a win in the Coca-Cola 600. The next season, he returned to another role within the Hendrick organization -- and as lead engineer helped Johnson capture his third consecutive points title.

Even so, coming on board to serve as Stewart's crew chief was more than a little intimidating for Grubb, as it would have been for any newcomer. Stewart spent the first 10 years of his Cup career with the same crew chief, Greg Zipadelli. They won 33 races and two championships together at Joe Gibbs Racing.

“

It's one of those things where we're going to say we're never going to stop the learning process. We're getting better every week. We've got these little lessons that we go through all the time where we learn different styles of what we're looking for in the race car, or what we're looking for in terms of feedback.

”

-- DARIAN GRUBB

"Of course it's one of those things where you're going to be a little nervous coming in because I didn't really know Tony very well," Grubb said. "I really only met him last year when we first started talking about this deal. Definitely after you've had that long a relationship with somebody (like Stewart did with Zipadelli), you know he's probably got some things he likes to hear, some things he likes to do. There are certain things that you know he likes to hear in the dialogue back and forth.

"I had to learn some of those things. But also I've got my own way of doing things, too, and I have for a long time. So he has to learn me as well. I haven't really been scared about it; neither has he, I don't think. It's actually been a lot of fun to try to learn each other."

Stewart couldn't agree more. He said he was every bit as apprehensive about entering a new crew chief relationship as Grubb, and perhaps even more so.

"You are always apprehensive and you always wonder in a situation like that," Stewart said. "Zippy was a security blanket for me because we knew for 10 years what we were able to do, and he knew me better than most people do.

"Making a change like that and having to try to find that package and that combination and relationship is something you just don't know about. Even if he is the best crew chief in the world and if he has the best driver, you don't know if that means you are going to hit it off personality-wise and have success."

A funny thing happened on the way to their first race in this year's season-opening Daytona 500. They hit it off.

"It didn't take long to realize that this was kind of like putting on an old pair of shoes," Stewart said. "There were a lot of similarities between Darian and Zippy. There were some major differences, too -- but the major differences didn't scare you. It was more like, 'It's all right. It's comforting. It is sort of the same but different -- and we go forward.'"

They are going forward faster and farther than either of them could have imagined in this first season together.

"It's one of those things where we're going to say we're never going to stop the learning process," Grubb said. "We're getting better every week. We've got these little lessons that we go through all the time where we learn different styles of what we're looking for in the race car, or what we're looking for in terms of feedback.

"So I'm not going to say we'll ever hit 100 percent where we know each other -- because I want to keep growing and I want to get better every week."

No one was better in the All-Star Race. And afterward, when the media was probing to find out why, Grubb had only to look at Stewart to know how to answer the tough questions about the changes they made.

It offered further evidence of the rapidly maturing nature of their developing relationship.

"I think we're getting to where I know him pretty well," Grubb said. "Just his mannerisms and some of the things he says in the background. You start picking up all those mannerisms, like a nervous twitch or something like that, and you know what it means. You can figure out just from his mannerisms how adamant he is about something, how he really feels. Whether he says something or not, it's kind of like reading his poker face."

There was no poker face after the All-Star victory. There were only smiles all around.