編集ggplot バージョン 3.0.0 への更新
近かったと思います。add grob コマンドで行番号と列番号が間違っていました。新しいストリップは列 5 から 9 にまたがります。つまり、add grob コマンドで 10 を 9 に変更します。
library(ggplot2)
library(gtable)
library(grid)
p <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt)) + geom_point()
p <- p + facet_grid(. ~ cyl)
z <- ggplotGrob(p)
# New strip at the top
z <- gtable_add_rows(z, z$height[7], pos = 6) # New row added below row 6
# Check the layout
gtable_show_layout(z) # New strip goes into row 7
# New strip spans columns 5 to 9
z <- gtable_add_grob(z,
list(rectGrob(gp = gpar(col = NA, fill = "gray85", size = .5)),
textGrob("Number of Cylinders", gp = gpar(cex = .75, fontface = 'bold', col = "black"))),
t=7, l=5, b=7, r=9, name = c("a", "b"))
# Add small gap between strips - below row 6
z <- gtable_add_rows(z, unit(2/10, "line"), 7)
# Draw it
grid.newpage()
grid.draw(z)

または、右側に新しいストリップを追加するには:
library(ggplot2)
library(gtable)
library(grid)
p <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt)) + geom_point()
p <- p + facet_grid(cyl ~ .)
z <- ggplotGrob(p)
# New strip to the right
z <- gtable_add_cols(z, z$widths[6], pos = 6) # New column added to the right of column 6
# Check the layout
gtable_show_layout(z) # New strip goes into column 7
# New strip spans rows 7 to 11
z <- gtable_add_grob(z,
list(rectGrob(gp = gpar(col = NA, fill = "gray85", size = .5)),
textGrob("Number of Cylinders", rot = -90,
gp = gpar(cex = .75, fontface = 'bold', col = "black"))),
t=7, l=7, b=11, r=7, name = c("a", "b"))
# Add small gap between strips - to the right of column 6
z <- gtable_add_cols(z, unit(2/10, "line"), 6)
# Draw it
grid.newpage()
grid.draw(z)
