REUNITED: ZIPADELLI JOINS STEWART HAAS RACING FOR ‘12

As was reported here in November, Greg Zipadelli is now the Competition Director at Stewart Haas Racing, rejoining friend Tony Stewart and taking a different path through the NASCAR garage.

Zipadelli won two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series titles on the box for Stewart, along with 33 races, will work with Vice President of Competition Matt Borland and oversee the Nos. 14 and 39 teams, while also building the No. 10 team for which Danica Patrick will run a 10-race Sprint Cup schedule with in 2012. 

“This was a tough decision to make,” Zipadelli said Friday. “I was at Joe Gibbs Racing for 13 years, and all this happened in the last 48 hours.”

Zipadelli had spent the last three seasons as crew chief for Joey Logano, who took over for Stewart in the cockpit of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota. Zippy said that asking the then 18-year-old driver to fill Stewart’s shoes was a bit unfair.

We’ll have more on what he said during the press conference later, but suffice it to say that Zipadelli will be able to reunite with Stewart in a job that doesn’t require him to be gone as much as he was as a crew chief and he won’t miss family time with his growing brood.

He’ll still be the crew chief at Daytona for Danica Patrick, and he’ll fill in that role until the right person is hired. But he will be doing other things across all three teams that will hopefully help them defend their title in 2012.

 “We’re very proud to have Greg Zipadelli join Stewart-Haas Racing,” said Stewart, the three-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion. “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.

 “We took our time in searching for a competition director because it’s an important role with a lot of responsibility. Greg knows all that goes into the job, understands the importance of teamwork and communication across all levels of the organization, and is ultimately someone I have a great deal of trust in.”