Tony Stewart is expected to name Darian Grubb as crew chief for the No. 14 Chevrolet that he will be driving for Stewart-Haas Racing next year.

Stewart mentioned this during the week on his SIRIUS radio show and was able to back that up while in Fontana, CA by saying that the announcement will come on Friday in Richmond.

Darian Grubb, who currently coordinates at-track engineering for Hendrick Motorsports, will now be named to the position of crew chief. During Chad Knaus’ four-race suspension to start the 2006 season, Grubb was a fill-in for Knaus as crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, who won the Daytona 500, finished second at Fontana, won at Las Vegas and finished sixth at Atlanta during that period.

Grubb also served as Casey Mears’ crew chief in 2007 and scored a victory in the Coca-Cola 600, the only victory of Mears’ career.

Stewart said deciding on a crew chief was a difficult task, particularly after the long association he’s had with Greg Zipadelli at Joe Gibbs Racing. They had a successful 10-year stint together and Tony now hopes that he and Darian can create that same winning formula.