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Profile & Interview with Cup Crewchief & New England Native Steve Letarte

Name: Steve Letarte (Born: 5/14/79, Portland, ME)

Job title: Crew Chief, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports

Previous gigs: You’ve got to be kidding, right? Everyone knows Steve was practically born within the Hendrick stables. Seriously? Well, it’s pretty close to being accurate. Letarte started working part-time for the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team as a parts assistant while attending high school. And he’s done nothing but move up since then. In 1996, at the age of 16, he started working full time as a tire specialist and mechanic. Four years later, he was a general mechanic who was then promoted to car chief in 2002. It was in 2005 that he was named crew chief for the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet Team, making this his fourth full season as crew chief for Jeff Gordon.

Stat worth bragging about: Letarte has been a crew member on all four of Gordon’s championship teams (1995, 1997, 1998 and 2001).

And it began with a sweep: “I started sweeping the floors in the 24 parts room, and I just never left. I’ve had wonderful opportunities to move up within the company. It’s really way more than a company to work for – definitely feels like family. Mr. Hendrick is a great mentor and a great friend.”

Ever thought about testing the waters elsewhere? “The whole company is surrounded with good people so there is no reason to ever go anywhere else.”

Favorite tracks? “I’m a short track racer by heart. So I love going to Martinsville, Bristol and Richmond.”

Good side of still being a relatively new crew chief: “Pros are when you are new at anything, the world expects maybe a little less out of you. You will be able to make a few more mistakes.”

But what about the flip side? “The cons are when you work for a company that is as successful as this company with a driver as successful as this driver (Gordon), your learning curve better be steep and fast because you don’t have a lot of time to get acclimated.”

Advice for a newbie crew chief: “If you are coming in as a crew chief the biggest thing I could tell everybody is people, people, people, people, people. You don’t work on the cars anymore. You call the race, you work with your engineers on the setup, you work with your shock guy, and you work with your mechanics and your car chief. You have to have the right people because the people make you look way better than you really probably are in life. I have been pretty blessed to be surrounded with some good people here. The people you choose for your team – they say a lot about you and really kind of make or break you.”

Building cars has nothing on building Lego: “Anytime I am away from the racetrack or away from the shop I just love to spend time with my family (wife Tricia and two children). I have a three year old (daughter Ashlyn) and five year old (son Tyler). They are full of energy, so I try to build Lego and do whatever else they want to do. Just be a dad.”

Favorite food? “I am a meat and potatoes kind of guy. I like just a nice steak.”

Last movie you saw: “Body of Lies” on the plane out here (to Las Vegas).”

If you weren’t a crew chief what job would you be doing right now? “If you asked my owner I would be in sales, he says I would be a good salesman.”

But is that the job you’d want to do? “I enjoy dealing with people – I really enjoy real estate, I really enjoy business.”

What job would you never want to do? “I would never want to be an attorney. My wife’s an attorney. I hate e-mails, I hate writing and I would definitely hate legal briefs, so I definitely would not be a very good attorney.”

Last Updated on 04/21/09
By George Campbell or Greg Fish
Email: neracing@neracing.com