Steve Letarte

Steven Letarte (born May 14, 1979) is an American professional NASCAR crew chief and TV sportscaster who works as a color commentator for Amazon Prime, TNT and NASCAR on NBC. He also works as a consultant for Spire Motorsports, a NASCAR Cup and Truck Series team. He was previously a crew member and crew chief for Hendrick Motorsports from 1995 to 2014, retiring after 20 years with the team. From September 2005 to 2010, he was the crew chief for Jeff Gordon's No. 24 car and from 2011 to 2014, he was the crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 88 car.

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 Jeff Gordon's No. 24 team. He then became a mechanic and finally car chief in 2002.

Letarte was promoted from car chief to crew chief after Gordon missed the 2005 Chase for the NEXTEL Cup. He was promoted after 26 of the 36 races in the 2005 season.

In Letarte's sixth race as crew chief with Gordon, he visited victory lane for the first time in October 2005, winning the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway, in Martinsville, Virginia. Gordon improved with three top-five finishes in the last five races of the 2005 season.

Entering the 2006 season, Hendrick Motorsports made wholesale changes to the No. 24 team. Gordon fought major handling issues at almost all of the intermediate racetracks, (1.5/2-mile downforce racetracks) which relegated Gordon to run outside the top-ten and even outside the top-fifteen. Gordon finished outside the top-ten at California, Texas, Charlotte, and Pocono – all of which were down-force tracks. ^{[citation needed]}

When the series reached the 2-mile racetrack of Michigan International Speedway, near Brooklyn, Michigan, in mid-June, Gordon experienced a huge turnaround at a track that he had struggled at in previous season. Gordon led the most laps and finished eighth in a rain-shortened event; showing an instant improvement in Gordon's downforce program. ^{[citation needed]} For the first time since 2004, the No. 24 Chevrolet made the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup.

Gordon experienced an up-and-down postseason in 2006. They finished in the top five in both of the first two races, but posted 39th- and 36th-place finishes in the next two events, due to a failed fuel pump in Kansas Speedway and a crash at Talladega Superspeedway. Gordon also experienced an engine failure with 33 laps to go at Charlotte which relegated the No. 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 the final points standings.