Steve Letarte
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Steve Letarte (born May 14, 1979 in Portland, Maine) is the crew chief for Jeff Gordon in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. He first began as crew chief when he took over the job of the #24 DuPont Chevrolet from Robbie Loomis in September 2005.
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[edit] Early Racing Career
Letarte began working for Hendrick Motorsports part time in 1995. In 1996, at the age of 16, he joined the group full-time. From 1997 to 1999, he worked as a tire specialist for the #24 team. He then became a mechanic and finally car chief in 2002.
[edit] #24 Crew Chief
Letarte was promoted from car chief to crew chief after the #24 DuPont Chevrolet missed the 2005 Chase for the NEXTEL Cup. He was promoted after 26 of the 36 races in the 2005 season.[1]
On his sixth race as crew chief, he won his first race with Gordon in October of 2005 in the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway, in Martinsville, Virginia. The #24 improved with three top-five finishes in the last five races of the 2005 season.
Entering the 2006 season, HMS made wholesale changes to the 24 team. The team fought major handling issues at almost all of the intermediate racetracks (1.5/2-mile downforce racetracks) which relegated Gordon to run outside of the top-ten and even outside of the top-fifteen. Gordon finished outside of the top-ten at California, Texas, Charlotte, and Pocono - all of which were downforce tracks.[citation needed]
When the series reached the 2-mile downforce racetrack of Michigan International Speedway, near Brooklyn, Michigan, in mid-June, the #24 Chevrolet experienced a huge turnaround at a track that the #24 had struggled. Gordon led the most laps and finished eighth in a rain-shortened event; showing an instant improvement in the #24's downforce program.[citation needed] The #24 DuPont Chevrolet making the 2006 Chase for the NEXTEL Cup.
The 24 experienced an up-and-down "Chase to the Nextel Cup". It finished in the top five in both of the first two races. Following those top-fives, the team experienced a 39th and a 36th place finishe due to a failed fuel pump in Kansas City, Kansas and an accident at Talladega Superspeedway. Gordon also experience an engine failure with 33 laps to go at Charlotte which relegated the 24 to a 24th place finish.[citation needed]
Letarte and his team rebounded with finishes of: 5th at Martinsville, 6th at Atlanta, 9th at Texas, 4th at Phoenix and a 24th place finish at the season finale at Homestead, and ended the season 6th in point standings. Letarte's teammate, the #48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS which is driven by Jimmie Johnson and crew-chiefed by Chad Knaus, won the 2006 NASCAR/Nextel Cup Series Chanpionship.
In 2007, the #24 team finished the year off with 6 wins, Gordon's highest total since 2001, and a series-leading 21 top-5s, the most scored in a season since 1999. The #24 team also finished with 30 top-10s, setting a new NASCAR modern era record for most top 10s in a season. Although the team performed exceptionally well in the Chase, winning two races and scoring an average finish of 5.1, it was not enough to outperform their Hendrick Motorsports teammates on the #48 team.
The #24 team did dominate the points standings throughout much of the year, earning 353 more points than Jimmie Johnson's #48 team for the entire season, and 706 more points than Tony Stewart's #20 team, who earned the third-most points for the entire year.
[edit] Personal life
Letarte has two children and lives in Cornelius, North Carolina.[1]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Hendrick Motorsports | |
| Sprint Cup drivers | Casey Mears (#5) | Jeff Gordon (#24) | Jimmie Johnson (#48) | Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (#88) |
| Driver development program (under JR Motorsports) |
Landon Cassill | Brad Keselowski | Curtis Truex |
| Partnerships and affiliations | Furniture Row Racing | Haas CNC Racing | JR Motorsports | Phoenix Racing |
| Sprint Cup crew chiefs | Alan Gustafson (#5) | Steve Letarte (#24) | Chad Knaus (#48) | Tony Eury, Jr. (#88) |
| Other | Rick Hendrick | Ricky Hendrick | Darian Grubb | Brian Whitesell |
