Darian Grubb ’98 has spent his entire career working with cars, most of which were rounding tracks in the NASCAR circuit.

As a student in Mechanical Engineering, he interned with Volvo and General Motors. After college, he went to work in NASCAR, starting as an engineer for the Petty family enterprise and later moving to Hendrick Motorsports.

Grubb rose steadily in the ranks during his six years at Hendrick, starting as a team engineer for Jimmie Johnson’s #48 Chevrolet. Working for Johnson, Grubb scored a notable first career victory when he stepped in for another crew chief to win the 2006 Daytona 500.

Grubb moved in 2009 to Stewart-Haas Racing to take on a full-time role as crew chief. With that company, he led driver Tony Stewart to the 2011 Cup championship, racking up 23 wins along the way in the series. Grubb scored even more points for character in that season, pushing a team to victory despite being told that he wouldn’t be kept on as crew chief the following year.

This year, Grubb distinguished himself again, guiding driver Shane van Gisbergen to win a cup series in the first series attempted by the New Zealand driver. It was the first time in 60 years that a driver has done so.

Grubb talked about his time as a student with the College of Engineering, remembering how he cut his teeth on student car teams and learned skills that would propel him to success. Read that interview here.