Longtime crew chief Greg Zipadelli at peace with decision to remain at Joe Gibbs Racing

A year-and-a-half ago, Greg Zipadelli never dreamed he’d be in this position.
 
The crew chief who helped steer Tony Stewart to two NASCAR Cup titles and 33 wins at Joe Gibbs Racing had been talking with his driver about both men signing long-term contracts to remain with the organization.
 
Then everything changed.
 
Stewart announced last July he was leaving JGR at the end of 2008 to become a co-owner and driver for the team now known as Stewart-Haas Racing.
 
And Zipadelli, who helped establish the No. 20 team at JGR before the 1999 season, was left with a decision: Remain with the organization and serve as crew chief for Stewart’s successor, rookie Joey Logano, or go elsewhere.
 
After mulling his options, Zipadelli stayed put. And despite some bumps in the road already, he’s glad he did.
 
“I just feel like I got the opportunity 11-plus years ago to come over to Joe Gibbs Racing and kind of start the 20 team,” Zipadelli says. “And all these guys left somewhere else to come over here and go to work for me and they were all willing to stay here and start over and stand behind me. With that being said, I feel it’s my house, it was my team, you know what I mean? And it was time for us to prove that we were a good team and work our self back to the front.”
 
Working with the 19-year-old Logano has been as different from working with the veteran Stewart for Zipadelli as night and day.
 
Besides the obvious contrasts in age and experience, the soft-spoken Logano and occasionally brash Stewart don’t share much in common in terms of personality and style. That’s been an adjustment for the 42-year-old Zipadelli, whose 10 years with Stewart represented the longest running driver-crew chief pairing in the Cup garage.
 
“I think their temperament’s a lot different,” says Zipadelli, noting that he and Stewart still keep in touch and remain friends. “I mean, Tony obviously had a lot of confidence coming in here because he had been successful in so many other forms of racing. Joey is trying to get that comfort and confidence and build that every week. I think Tony obviously would get a whole lot more excited about things than Joey seems to do so far.
 
“So in that aspect, Joey needs a little more, I think, motivation, a little more kick in the pants. Tony, sometimes you were pulling him back a little bit and trying to get him to control his emotions and things more.”
 
Logano, who surprised the NASCAR world by snaring his first win in last Sunday’s rain-shortened race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, says he relies on his more-seasoned pit boss for encouragement and advice. And Logano doesn’t normally question Zipadelli’s judgment. Such was the case last week, when Zipadelli left his driver on the track while others pitted for fuel in the closing laps, knowing that rain was near and that staying out was Logano’s only hope of winning. The move paid off when the race was called 28 laps shy of its advertised distance, with Logano still on the point.

Logano calls Zipadelli, whom he’d only run test laps with prior to this season, “the right man for the job.”
 
“Obviously, he knows what he’s doing,” Logano says, noting that Zipadelli is old enough to be his father. “He’s won a couple championships, he knows what he’s got to do. That’s why I don’t really second-guess him. He’s been there, done that and I’m not to the point to tell him, ‘Hey, well, I think we should probably go this way with the car.’
 
“He knows that type [of] stuff. It’s good to have that on your side.”
 
Zipadelli, though, takes little credit for Logano’s progression.
 
“I’d like to sit here and say, ‘Yeah, he’s going to be a better driver because he’s worked with me and I can take past experiences,’ but there’s a lot of good people, a lot of talented people in the garage that would do a good job with Joey and would’ve loved the opportunity,” he says. “Right now, things are working well together, we’re making progress. That’s all you can kind of ask for and just continue to try and improve on where we feel we’re weak.”
 
Seat time has been perhaps Logano’s biggest hurdle to overcome. Having made just three Cup starts prior to 2009, the Connecticut native is visiting many tracks this season for the first time. And the learning curve has been steep.
 
Before last weekend’s triumph, Logano had finished no better than ninth in 19 career starts. He enters tonight’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway 21st in the standings.
 
For Zipadelli, it’s all a matter of adapting to a driver still finding his way.
 
Zipadelli cites, for example, Logano’s inclination for changing how he drives the car over the course of a race weekend, which forces the crew to make additional adjustments and chase the setup.
 
Zipadelli says that at many tracks he’s all but thrown out his old notes from the Stewart-era and started over from scratch to make the car more to Logano’s liking.
 
“I think what Zippy has done a great job of is guiding the team,” team owner Joe Gibbs said. “Nobody on that group gets down. … They are used to running for a championship. This year they are working with Joey, a real young guy [and] they have been, I think, just great. I take great pride in that.”
 
While Zipadelli admits it has been tiring and even frustrating at times adjusting his expectations to suit a rookie driver, he has come to embrace the challenge. And he is at peace with his decision to remain at JGR no matter how different the man behind the wheel might be.
 
“At the end of the day you’ve got to remember that’s what we signed up for, that’s what we’re here for,” Zipadelli says. “For the most part, it’s been a pretty good deal.”