By Ryan - Posted on December 21, 2011

Greg Zipadelli has made a nice career for himself at Joe Gibbs Racing, first as crew chief for Tony Stewart, and most recently, as crew chief for Joey Logano. Now, after 13 years, Zipadelli has left Joe Gibbs Racing for a position as Competition Director at Stewart-Haas Racing.

One of his tasks in that role will be serving as Danica Patrick’s Crew Chief when she debuts in the Sprint Cup Series at Daytona in February. Although Zipadelli has not yet spoke with Patrick, he did indicate that he had two immediate things to do: put together a crew for her and determine if the owner points that Tony Stewart obtained driving the No. 14 last season would transfer to Danica Patrick’s No. 10 car. If so, that would ensure her a spot in the Daytona 500, rather than needing to qualify on time.

Zipadelli said that he had not planned to move into an administrative role so quickly, and would miss being on the pit box, after all the years he has spent there. However, the transition may be made easier by serving as Patrick’s Crew Chief, at least for the Daytona 500, and possibly for her other planned Sprint Cup races. "When we talked about moving to Stewart-Haas, working with Danica Patrick wasn't part of it," Zipadelli said. "But when we got through, they thought about it, and asked if this was something I would do. I'm here to help this team grow in anything that I can do. I'm looking forward to it and I think it'll be fun and exciting and like I said, it helps me a little with the withdrawals of not being on that box. The races are spread out throughout the year so that'll be good and it shouldn't take a lot away from the things I'm trying to learn."

Predictably, Tony Stewart reacted very positively to the addition of Greg Zipadelli to his organization. "Greg and I have a long and successful history together. I know him and he knows me, and we both know what it takes to build race teams,” he said.