CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tony Stewart made a decision to fire crew chief Darian Grubb, and winning the NASCAR championship didn’t change his mind.
Grubb was officially replaced Monday, eight days after guiding Stewart to the Sprint Cup title. Steve Addington, who quit as Kurt Busch‘s crew chief last week, takes over immediately.
Grubb was told midway through the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship that he would be let go.
• Richard Childress Racing hired Drew Blickensderfer as crew chief for Jeff Burton. Blickensderfer replaces Luke Lambert, who had been working on an interim basis with Burton and will be moved to a new position at RCR.
Georgia’s Crowell practices
ATHENS, Ga. — No. 12 Georgia hopes to have freshman starting tailback Isaiah Crowell back against No. 1 LSU in Saturday’s Southeastern Conference championship game. Crowell missed last week’s 31-17 win over Georgia Tech with a left ankle injury. Crowell, who practiced Monday, leads Georgia (10-2) with 832 yards rushing and five touchdowns, including four 100-yard games.
• Stanford’s Andrew Luck won the Pac-12’s offensive player of the year award, and David Shaw is the league’s best coach in his first season. California linebacker Mychal Kendricks won defensive player of the year. Southern California wide receiver Marqise Lee and Oregon running back De’Anthony Thomas shared freshman offensive honors. USC linebacker Dion Bailey was freshman defensive player of the year.
• South Carolina receiver Alshon Jeffery had surgery on his broken left hand suffered against Clemson. Guard Terrence Campbell suffered a cracked bone in the game. Both are probable for a bowl game.
• Utah State (6-5) is heading to Idaho next month to play in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Dec. 17.
• Montana State offensive line coach Jason McEndoo is the American Football Coaches Association assistant coach of the year for the Football Championship Subdivision.
• Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson said he is retiring next year.
Footnotes.
Atlanta Braves right-hander Tim Hudson is expected to be ready for spring training after having surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back.
• Right-hander Jonathan Broxton will not re-sign with the Dodgers, according to his agent.
• Catcher Jose Molina and the Tampa Bay Rays agreed to a $1.8 million, one-year contract.
• The Minnesota Brewers hired Johnny Narron as hitting coach to replace Dale Sveum, who became manager of the Cubs.
• Five years after striking for the first two months of the season, minor-league umpires reached an agreement on a new labor contract.
• Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger will have left knee surgery today and will miss a month.
• Minnesota senior forward Trevor Mbakwe will miss the rest of the basketball season with torn ACL in his right knee.
• The Los Angeles Galaxy traded former starting goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts to the expansion Montreal Impact for allocation money. And Sporting Kansas City traded midfielder Davy Arnaud to the Impact in a deal that returns defender Seth Sinovic plus allocation money.
• Herb Boldt, 84, a former reporter and editor at The Detroit News who also wrote an outdoors column for The Associated Press in Michigan, has died.
The Associated Press
