As far as he was concerned, Steve Letarte couldn’t have asked for a better job.
As first Jeff Gordon’s and then Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief, Letarte had command over how two of NASCAR’s most high-profile teams were run. He worked with the drivers. He worked with the pit crew. He developed strategies, monitored equipment and made the calls on race day. And he loved it.
The catch? Letarte started doing it at 26. And with a Sprint Cup crew chief being one of the busiest and most exhausting jobs in the sport, he knew he couldn’t do it forever.
“It became clear to me … (that) the chance of doing this through retirement was probably pretty low,” he said. “It’s a very intense job, a lot of hours and an emotionally draining job, a lot of stress.”
He needed another outlet, one that still kept him involved in the sport that had become his life. He found it. Letarte is in his second year as a color analyst with NBC on its NASCAR team, and will be in the booth today for the New Hampshire 301 on NBC Sports Network at 1:30 p.m.
“When the opportunity became real that I could transition to the TV booth, I took it seriously,” said Letarte, a native New Englander who grew up in Maine. “The idea that I was able to find a job that was only one full-time job, instead of two or three full-time jobs like crew chiefing is, yet still be involved in the sport I’m very passionate about, was a great opportunity for sure.”
Letarte put himself in position for the gig by rising quickly through one of NASCAR’s premier organizations. His father raced cars and moved the family to North Carolina when Letarte was 14 to take a job at Hendrick Motorsports, and the son tagged along with the company when he could.
He started as a part-timer on the cleaning crew, then climbed the ladder with more and more tasks before impressing enough to become Gordon’s crew chief late in the 2005 season, a position he held before switching to the same job with Earnhardt from 2011-14.
All along, Letarte planned for the next thing. An engaging personality with a knack for communication, Letarte worked when he could with radio and TV analysis gigs, appearing on the Motor Racing Network, ESPN and Sirius Radio.
“I always enjoyed it,” he said. “It just became a natural fit.”
The exposure turned itself into the full-time job with NBC, though it wasn’t without its hiccups. With his crew chief background, Letarte had no problem breaking down the racing on the track. But there was an adjustment to being on TV for a full season, and he saw that stepping out of a fast-moving sport made keeping up with it a challenge.
“The knowledge of the race scene and the racing event, without a doubt, was my strength in year one,” he said. “I had to learn a lot about TV, but I do expect that as the years go by and I become more comfortable with TV, I’m going to have to work to make sure I’m up on top of how the garage area has changed.”
Letarte kept his approach simple that first year, but has felt a better synergy with boothmates Jeff Burton and Rick Allen in the second.
“The first year I just tried to go out there and tell the fans at home what I was seeing on the racetrack and how the race was unfolding, and I thought we did a good job of that,” Letarte said. “But the second year, we really raised expectations. You know, if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.
“We have a lot of smart people in the truck, lot of smart people in the broadcast team, and they can help me deliver maybe a more concise message.”
The expectations will surely climb for year three as well. That’s a crew chief’s approach, and Letarte is eager to keep succeeding in a sport that’s been so rewarding to him.
“NASCAR’s given me all the opportunity I’ve had in life, as far as a professional chance,” he said. “I’m a huge fan of the sport. … I just care about it deeply.”
The most drama in the Xfinity Series’s AutoLotto 200 came far away from the lead – and with almost two-thirds of the race to go.
Ty Dillon, running in 10th, saw his chances Saturday vanish coming out of Turn 2 on the 76th lap. Dillon and Alex Bowman swung out of the turn into the back straightaway, and Bowman, trying to come away from the wall, turned inside and knicked the back of Dillon’s car, causing him to spin hard into the wall.
The wreck caused Dillon – ranked third in the Xfinity standings coming in – to miss five laps and fall to 35th. And he wasn’t happy.
“He wrecked me on purpose,” Dillon said in the garage. “For whatever reason, he felt like he needed to turn me in the straightaway. … I’m glad he’s still on the track and not out here with me.”
Dillon finished 33rd and remained third in the standings. Bowman finished eighth, and said during the race that his car was too tight on the track.
Dillon didn’t buy it.
“(He’s) a guy that doesn’t get to race too much, and he showed why,” he said. “He’s beyond the corner, he’s down the straightaway and he just turned left. … Maybe he needs to figure out what too loose and tight mean.”
After the race, Bowman said he’d try to explain things to Dillon – in due time.
“He tried to wreck me four times and couldn’t get it done,” he said. “I’ll try to talk to him, but I’ll let him cool down first.”
New Bruins player and Merrimack native Tim Schaller, the pace car driver for the AutoLotto 200, elaborated on his racing interest before the race, saying that he became a Kurt Busch fan the first time he went to a race at NHMS.
He got a chance to meet his favorite driver Saturday. And Busch had a favor to ask of him – namely doing something about the Sprint Cup’s hottest team.
“He told me to take out a couple of Penske drivers,” Schaller said.
(Drew Bonifant can be reached at 369-3340, abonifant@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @dbonifant.)