NASCAR officials aren't immune from the cyclone that is word of mouth in the motorsports community. When news surfaced that John Darby was leaving his post after eight years as Sprint Cup Series director, a number of wildly divergent tales surfaced. These weren't your average, ordinary, run-of-the-mill whispers, either.

"I'm aware of most of [the gossip], from being terminally ill with cancer to getting arrested for dealing cocaine or whatever the craziness was," Darby said. "Why or how that happens, I don't know. ... I didn't really have a reaction, much, to the rumors.

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Any speculation is dangerous, I guess, but there was a part of it that became rather humorous at a point. Some of it went a little too far, I think. But it's nothing that I lost sleep over.

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-- JOHN DARBY

"Probably, for the most part, it was because I first-hand knew they were rumors. I knew I hadn't been arrested, I knew I wasn't sick, I knew I hadn't failed a drug test and I knew that I didn't get in a fight with my boss."

For two days, buzz on the media tour focused on Darby. Not until the last day of the tour was his new role announced, and it turned out, Darby wasn't moving on. He's moving up.

Darby is transitioning into a newly created position as managing director of competition for NASCAR, which means he'll work with directors and officials in several different NASCAR divisions. He will help train his replacement this season.

"Any speculation is dangerous, I guess, but there was a part of it that became rather humorous at a point," Darby said. "Some of it went a little too far, I think. But it's nothing that I lost sleep over.

"I don't know ... I don't know where it comes from. We see it and hear it every day, not necessarily anything that surrounds me or my position. There's a media craziness that's hard to explain."

According to Darby, his new role was first discussed last fall. He sees the position as a bridge between NASCAR management and officials in the garage, and not all that different than his current job. It's just on a much bigger scale.

Darby will be a sounding board for the series' directors. Never before, Darby said, has there been someone for series directors to lean on for advice. What worked for Darby, he added, was fairly simple. Just be honest and straight forward, and the garage will respond.

"We've still got a little bit of void between senior management and the actual guys who are hands-on, nut-and-bolt competition guys," Darby said. "Through some conversations, the managing director of competition position was kind of put together. I was, and still am, very happy being the Sprint Cup Series director.

"What [the new job] will do is ... let me move a level up, if you will, but [also] have the ability to oversee all of our touring series, from the regional touring series to all three national series. All of the series directors will have an actual hands-on guy that they can go to for problem solving, parts-and-pieces questions, help with the rule book, help running the races, help with their inspection processes."

Darby's career has run the gamut, from first owning a Street Stock car at his local short track in Rockford, Ill., in the early 1970s to eventually landing gigs as an inspector for a number of NASCAR divisions. Darby served as director of the Nationwide Series from 1999 through 2001, and he's been the Cup director ever since.

When he left the Nationwide Series, Darby felt a certain "compassion" for the division and its participants. All these years later, he has that same sense about what will soon be his former job as Cup Series director.

"I never hesitated to come to the Cup series," Darby said. "I've got a lot of work in the Cup Series. I've got a lot of great relationships. I've got my heart and soul in it. It's not a hesitation, necessarily, to move to this new position, but at the same time, it's hard to walk from one to the other."

As managing director of competition, Darby will spend time at a number of facilities across the country. Once the transition from series director is complete, Darby might be in Thompson, Conn., one weekend working a Whelen Modified Series event. The next, he could be on the West Coast the next for a K&N Pro Series race.

Darby is OK with that, despite years of working in the high-profile Cup Series tour. He seems far from the type who is content flying a desk in the office, doing little more than shuffling papers.

"I don't think that's what this job's all about," Darby said. "Obviously, 2010 won't change. I'll be in the Cup garage the entire year. I would predict that in 2011, I will probably be in a garage every weekend of the year. Part of the challenge of the new position is to analyze each garage on its own merits and maybe make some moderate changes or some improvements to our inspection systems.

"There's a lot of parts and pieces of the new job that you can't do from behind a desk. You've got to be in the field. You've got to be hands on. You've got to be working with the inspectors, the series directors, the competitors and everybody else involved."

Darby will be "actively involved" in the process to find the next Cup Series director, and allows only that the decision will be made "sometime in 2010."

If it sounds like filling the position isn't necessarily a priority, that's not the case.

"The priority is not so much about, 'Is [a replacement named] this week or next week?'" Darby said. "The priority is finding the right person."