Often winning isn’t enough if you’re a NASCAR crew chief

That crew chiefs are as easily replaceable as a set of tires is a lesson driven home quite frequently in recent years as the pressure to win at NASCAR’s highest level continually escalates. Sometimes even winning a championship is not enough to ensure your employment for the following season.

If anyone is familiar with the volatile nature of being a crew chief it is Darian Grubb, who for the third time in five years was sacked despite coming off what by any reasonable measure would be deemed a successful season.

Joe Gibbs Racing relieved Grubb of his duties as crew chief for Carl Edwards last month. Wanting to get Edwards and Denny Hamlin’s performance more in line with teammates Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch, who each won five times with Busch scoring his first championship, JGR promoted Mike Wheeler, an Xfinity Series crew chief, to the same position on Hamlin’s team and transferred Dave Rogers from Hamlin to Edwards’ No. 19 car.

This is despite Grubb being in charge of a startup team that won twice and saw Edwards finish fifth in the point standings -- his best ranking since finishing runner-up four years ago -- and miss qualifying for the championship round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff by a mere five points.

Still coming to terms with JGR’s decision to dismiss him, a seemingly resentful Grubb made his first public comments during an interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Thursday.

“I was somewhat surprised,” Grubb said. “The first conversation I had about it was one week into the Chase and I was told at that point that I needed to get nine more solid weeks in. I was like, ‘Well, I’ve been through this before.‘ Last time it was six weeks’ notice. This time, it was nine. I knew something was going to come up with the change.”

But if Grubbs was taken aback he shouldn’t have been. It is a scenario he’s now experienced three of the last five years.

In 2011, Grubb was serving as Tony Stewart’s crew chief when the two labored through a difficult winless regular season. Things became so frustrating Stewart publicly lambasted his team, saying they didn’t even deserve a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup even if they qualified.

But Stewart did earn a spot in the playoff field and then went on to win five of 10 Chase races en route to a third premier division championship. Nonetheless, it was not enough to save Grubb’s job. He was informed during the Chase he would be replaced at the conclusion of the season and would need to find employment elsewhere.

Grubb quickly landed with JGR where he appointed Hamlin’s crew chief for the following season. The two would win five races that first year together and in 2014, Hamlin advanced the championship finale, ultimately finishing third overall.

That too was not enough to keep Grubb atop Hamlin’s pit box. When JGR added a fourth car for the newly signed Edwards, Grubbs was tasked with leading the team. And despite an organizational wide slow start, Edwards and Grubb still recovered to post a season most would have coveted.

But NASCAR is a win-or-else business. A mentality only increased in pervasiveness since the institution of the multi-round Chase format two years ago that’s upped the pressure to perform and avoid elimination every three weeks.

Expectations are also heightened by the rapid success first-year driver-crew chief pairings have enjoyed in back-to-back seasons. Two years ago it was Kevin Harvick and Rodney Childers holding the championship trophy, while in 2015 it was Busch and Adam Stevens.

When Edwards signed with JGR he did so because it gave him the best opportunity to win. He openly spoke prior to the season that anything short of a title would be deemed a failure and though the pairs of victories and fifth-place ranking were nice, it didn’t compare to what Busch and Stevens accomplished.

“I guess fifth in points just wasn’t good enough in some people’s eyes; five points away from running (for the title),” Grubb said.

In the meantime, Grubb has taken a position as the director of vehicle production at Hendrick Motorsports where he will oversee the construction of cars for Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne and Chase Elliott.

Undoubtedly another chance as a crew chief will arise, Grubb is simply too talented. Among active crew chiefs, Chad Knaus’ 70 victories only eclipse Grubb’s 23. And when he does return it will be under the same circumstances faced previously: every race, every year is a must-win.

Or else.