Wendy Venturini gives NASCAR fans the 'Real Deal' on NASCAR Raceday Built by the Home Depot, SPEED's premier NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pre-race show. (Image: SPEED)
Wendy Venturini "Who are the people behind that dominant driver Tony Stewart, well, Darian Grubb, the crew chief, has three wins since being onboard with Stewart-Haas Racing and in his history he has won with every driver he has worked with in the Sprint Cup series including Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears. Another man behind the scenes, Bobby Hutchens, the Director of Competition at Stewart-Haas Racing; he was on the scene 20 years ago with Dale Earnhardt, Sr.’s crew. Bobby was with RCR back in the day with Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s crew. Together, these two gentlemen are the force, or part of the force behind Tony Stewart and the victories they have had. Keep in mind the 14 car will clinch the spot for the Chase Championship by starting today’s race in Michigan. We decided to check in with the boys, here is a look at the "Real Deal" with Stewart-Haas Racing, check it out..."
Wendy Venturini "First off gentlemen, congratulations on another win. Did you ever think you would have this much success this quickly?"
Darian Grubb (Crew Chief #14) "We weren’t really planning on having this much success, but a lot of hard work has gone into it. The entire Stewart-Haas organization has worked really hard since last October gearing up for this so it is nice to see the fruits of the labor paying off."
Bobby Hutchens (Dir. of Competition SHR) "From my perspective I thought we would have success, maybe not this early and the amount we had. I think we over- exceeded some of our expectations slightly, but we always thought we would be in the Championship Chase from the beginning."
Wendy Venturini "I can’t imagine that when you guys sat down before the start of the season, you wrote goals that included a win at a triangle, a win at a speedway, a win at the road course, oh yea, a win at the biggest non points race of the year and lead the points for the majority of the season. That is a lot of accomplishments, but you are making it look easy!"
Darian Grubb (Crew Chief #14) "It is not really easy, we are fortunate and lucky to be in that position this season. Our goals for coming into the season were to be able to compete for wins, we didn’t even expect to win. We were expecting to be fighting for it, get top 10s, get top 5s and keep progressing toward it, and have a chance to be in the chase and have a chance for the championship."
Wendy Venturini "It is not as easy as it looks."
Bobby Hutchens (Dir. of Competition SHR) "It is not easy, but the biggest thing is we tried to have is fun from the first time we walked in the door. Everybody here gets along there are no big egos, we get to the racetrack, we have fun all weekend. You mentioned the word momentum, we have steadily as the year progressed built momentum and hopefully we haven’t peaked yet. That is the little thing I am worried about; I hope we can peak a little later in the Chase. Right now we are headed in the right direction."
Wendy Venturini "You realize that any time Tony Stewart has led the points, he has never relinquished the lead and has gone on to win the two times he has led the points in 2002 and 2005, no pressure, though, right?"'
Darian Grubb (Crew Chief #14) "I obviously didn’t know that stat. When you see his past performance at places like Watkins Glen like this past weekend, there is a lot of pressure going into that. We know we have to provide the equipment for him to go out and do what he can do and he shows us that every week. He is able to step his game up whenever he has to, to go out there and perform and he has done a great job for us being able to keep that car up front."
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