- Home
- TV Shows
-
TV Schedule
-
SPEED Showcase
-
- NASCAR
-
- Formula 1
- Auto Racing
- Moto Racing
- Cars
- Bikes
- Store
- Social
- Mobile
- Deals
- Videos
- Photos
Sprint Cup
CUP: New Deal For Letarte
Steve Letarte has been Jeff Gordon’s crew chief for the past five years...
Crew chief Steve Letarte (Right) will no longer work with Jeff Gordon (Left) next season. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
As recently as Homestead-Miami Speedway last November, Steve Letarte wasn’t entirely sure that he was the right guy to lead Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team. But after Friday’s announcement that Letarte had signed a multi-year contract extension with the team, there’s no doubt about where he belongs.
Letarte, who got started as a teenager cutting the lawn for Gordon’s former crew chief, Ray Evernham, has been with Hendrick since 1995. He’s been Gordon’s pit boss since late 2005, and since then Gordon has posted 10 race victories, 21 runner-up finishes, 77 top-fives, 108 top-10s and 14 pole positions in 174 races. In that period, Gordon has more runner-up and top-five finishes than any other Cup driver.
Gordon’s best point finish with Letarte was second in 2007, and he finished third last year. But on the Friday before last year’s season-ending Homestead race, Letarte and Gordon had a long and frank sit down to make sure they were right for each other going forward.
“You have to first start with, ‘Do we all believe in what we’re doing? Do we all believe in one another?’” said Letarte, 31, a native of Portland, Maine. “And while we always felt that, I thought it was important for us to sit down and state it, and we did. He told me he believes in me and I’ve always believed in him. And that kind of allowed us to put everything on the table. We didn’t worry about feelings. We didn’t worry about anything other than winning races. We started at Homestead and worked very hard through December and January making team changes, which might be subtle, but at the same time, were very important.”
Since then, the team has made a number of improvements, ranging from bettering Gordon’s physcial fitness to tweaking personnel. The biggest thing was improving in-race communication. Too often in the past, Gordon would get frustrated mid-race and Letarte couldn’t get the car to his liking in the late stages of races.
“Being my crew chief is intimidating, but I think over time, when the results are there, but not as good as you would like them to be, you starting looking at everything,” said Gordon. “Some of those conversations were like, ‘Let’s go back to when you first started. Don’t treat me like I’m a four-time champion who’s won 80-some races. Treat me like a race car driver and treat me as a tool to make the team better, make the car go better.’”
So the two have worked hard to improve, and as a result Gordon is a solid second in points heading into Sunday’s Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway. And although he’s yet to win this season, he again leads the Cup Series in top-five finishes.
“I don’t want Jeff not to be Jeff,” said Letarte. “He’s a vocal guy, he’s a very colorful guy, he gets emotional in the car, he gets disappointed easy. He gets excited easy, gets motivated easy. I’ve never confused his emotion with his performance. The difference is, I think I let his emotions steer the questions I was asking and the amount of information I required. And that was really my fault.”
Now, Gordon and Letarte are communicating better than ever.
“Between the two of us, we have come up with key phrases and key directions that to someone like you or the casual fan, they don’t even pick up on it,” said Letarte. “But Jeff knows when I say a certain thing or ask it a certain way, it’s a polite way of me telling him you need to focus more on this or less on this, or I need to know about the chassis. No different than he has key phrases that he tells me. And when I pick up on those, I know, ‘OK, this is what we really need to work on in this area of the car.’”
As for his new deal, Letarte understandably is pleased.
“I'm extremely excited,” Letarte said. “Hendrick Motorsports is the only company I've ever received a paycheck from. I've worked here since I was a teenager, and they've provided wonderful opportunities for me. I owe a lot to them. I'm really excited to be extended here so I can go a few more years.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
Letarte, who got started as a teenager cutting the lawn for Gordon’s former crew chief, Ray Evernham, has been with Hendrick since 1995. He’s been Gordon’s pit boss since late 2005, and since then Gordon has posted 10 race victories, 21 runner-up finishes, 77 top-fives, 108 top-10s and 14 pole positions in 174 races. In that period, Gordon has more runner-up and top-five finishes than any other Cup driver.
Gordon’s best point finish with Letarte was second in 2007, and he finished third last year. But on the Friday before last year’s season-ending Homestead race, Letarte and Gordon had a long and frank sit down to make sure they were right for each other going forward.
“You have to first start with, ‘Do we all believe in what we’re doing? Do we all believe in one another?’” said Letarte, 31, a native of Portland, Maine. “And while we always felt that, I thought it was important for us to sit down and state it, and we did. He told me he believes in me and I’ve always believed in him. And that kind of allowed us to put everything on the table. We didn’t worry about feelings. We didn’t worry about anything other than winning races. We started at Homestead and worked very hard through December and January making team changes, which might be subtle, but at the same time, were very important.”
Since then, the team has made a number of improvements, ranging from bettering Gordon’s physcial fitness to tweaking personnel. The biggest thing was improving in-race communication. Too often in the past, Gordon would get frustrated mid-race and Letarte couldn’t get the car to his liking in the late stages of races.
“Being my crew chief is intimidating, but I think over time, when the results are there, but not as good as you would like them to be, you starting looking at everything,” said Gordon. “Some of those conversations were like, ‘Let’s go back to when you first started. Don’t treat me like I’m a four-time champion who’s won 80-some races. Treat me like a race car driver and treat me as a tool to make the team better, make the car go better.’”
Click Here to play Super 7 Sweep Fantasy Racing powered by Wind Tunnel™!
So the two have worked hard to improve, and as a result Gordon is a solid second in points heading into Sunday’s Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway. And although he’s yet to win this season, he again leads the Cup Series in top-five finishes.
“I don’t want Jeff not to be Jeff,” said Letarte. “He’s a vocal guy, he’s a very colorful guy, he gets emotional in the car, he gets disappointed easy. He gets excited easy, gets motivated easy. I’ve never confused his emotion with his performance. The difference is, I think I let his emotions steer the questions I was asking and the amount of information I required. And that was really my fault.”
Now, Gordon and Letarte are communicating better than ever.
“Between the two of us, we have come up with key phrases and key directions that to someone like you or the casual fan, they don’t even pick up on it,” said Letarte. “But Jeff knows when I say a certain thing or ask it a certain way, it’s a polite way of me telling him you need to focus more on this or less on this, or I need to know about the chassis. No different than he has key phrases that he tells me. And when I pick up on those, I know, ‘OK, this is what we really need to work on in this area of the car.’”
As for his new deal, Letarte understandably is pleased.
“I'm extremely excited,” Letarte said. “Hendrick Motorsports is the only company I've ever received a paycheck from. I've worked here since I was a teenager, and they've provided wonderful opportunities for me. I owe a lot to them. I'm really excited to be extended here so I can go a few more years.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
Latest Gallery
LATEST HEADLINES: NASCAR
-
Winged Sprint-Car Wreck Claims Jason Leffler
Jason Leffler lost his life Wednesday night in a winged sprint-car… -
MCREYNOLDS: Dover Showed Gen-6 Car Is Strong
The biggest storyline of the year is the introduction of the Generation… -
CUP: Richard Petty Motorsports Expands Development Program
Young drivers join new Petty program... -
CUP: Monster Mile Gets Toyotas
Toyota teams find setbacks at Dover... -
CUP: Kez Is On The Down-Low
Bard Keselowski's car too low after race... -
CUP: Dover Power Rankings
Despite a rare and costly mistake, Jimmie Johnson holds onto the… -
CUP: Montoya Edges Closer To Oval Win
Juan Pablo Montoya loses shot at first victory on oval… - More News
