One of the crucial essential individuals who must be credited for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s success with Hendrick Motorsports within the NASCAR Cup Sequence is Steve Letarte, who served as his crew chief from 2011 to 2014. On this time, they gained 5 races, together with the 2014 Daytona 500, and ranked excessive within the area. That stated, the journey of how they did so will not be so simple.
Earnhardt Jr. was not going by way of the perfect of occasions in 2010, ending twenty first within the standings with solely eight top-10s. The higher administration was trying to make some large adjustments, and one thought they got here up with was to swap his crew with Mark Martin’s group.
Martin had only one 12 months left on his contract, with Kasey Kahne set to take over quickly after, so a shake-up appeared inevitable. Nonetheless, the proposal didn’t sit effectively with Junior.
Earnhardt didn’t suppose it could be very wholesome for him to swap groups with Martin and spend a complete 12 months watching one another drive the opposite’s automotive. When he made that clear to the crew, they modified course and ended up swapping Martin’s crew with Jeff Gordon’s as an alternative. Gordon was really within the thought as a result of he would get to work with Alan Gustafson.
After that, they moved Junior to work with Letarte. This was one thing he welcomed because the No. 48 and No. 24 outlets within the Hendrick compound operated very in a different way from the No. 88 and No. 5 outlets he had been a part of earlier than. The possibility to work close to the likes of Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus was too attractive to cross up.
How Letarte and Dale Jr. turned their destiny round
Letarte and Junior had each been in a tricky spot after they have been put collectively. They realized that they wanted to enhance their performances or face the actual risk of termination. The crew chief had notably pointed this out to Junior and advised him that he was going to must do a spread of issues that may finally assist them.
He narrated in a latest episode of the “Dale Jr. Obtain” podcast, “I feel it modified Letarte as an individual and as a crew chief to have that large change occur. He was one of many first crew chiefs ever after a race to inform me he wanted to present me a greater automotive.”
Such phrases had made him suppose that not every thing was on his shoulders and give attention to simply delivering on the observe. Slowly and steadily, they moved from being a top-20 automotive to ending contained in the top-5 constantly.
“And so, right through the summer season, it was actually cool as a result of Letarte was like, ‘We received this. We’re going to have a methodical method and we’re going to only shoot for this after which after we nail that, we’re going to nail shoot for this and nail that,’” Earnhardt Jr. continued.
“We stored setting these objectives and reaching them, and it labored. I used to be like, ‘All proper, it was superior.’ If we hadn’t made that change, I don’t suppose I might have ever gained one other race. It was going to be an unpleasant grind to the very finish.” The gratefulness in his voice was fairly evident when he stated these phrases.
Letarte had been greater than only a crew chief for Junior. He had been a cheerleader and his largest motivator. He believed within the expertise that his driver had and extracted the utmost out of it.
