Jeff Gordon happy that Letarte is remaining as crew chief
Jeff Gordon meets with the media Friday at Pocono Raceway. Crew chief Steve Letarte's contract extension was chief among the topics Gordon touched on outside his No. 24 team's hauler. // LaDon George, NASCAR Illustrated
LONG POND, Pa. – Jeff Gordon didn’t need to say anything to Rick Hendrick about re-signing Steve Letarte as his crew chief.
Hendrick knows how Gordon feels about Letarte, who has been crew chief for Gordon since September 2005.
Letarte signed a three-year contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports through 2013.
“I’m excited,” Gordon said Friday at Pocono Raceway. “We’ve been talking about it for awhile, you know, that everything is good there.
“I’m happy with Steve. We love having him at Hendrick Motorsports. It’s always nice to confirm that, so it can put it to rest with everybody else.”
Hendrick crew chiefs Alan Gustafson and Chad Knaus had their extensions announced in May, but it took a couple of more months for Letarte to get his deal done.
“It was just a process, you know?” Gordon said. “It was never an issue. It was just the timing of it. It takes time to put these things together. I didn’t have to say anything [to Hendrick].”
Letarte wasn’t the only person who signed to be part of the Gordon crew this week. The team signed spotter Jeff Dickerson to begin working with Gordon this weekend.
Dickerson replaces Shannon McGlamery as Gordon’s spotter.
“We’re good, we’re solid, but we’re just trying to find little pieces here and there to get ourselves in a little bit better shape to win races as well as win this championship,” Gordon said.
“It’s about chemistry. Shannon has done a great job for us, but there’s been moments in time when I felt like the chemistry, the information that I was looking for versus what he was giving wasn’t always in sync. I think we agreed on that.”
