iNSIDE SCOOP: The Right Move

While the timing of the move is somewhat odd, Steve Letarte announced he is trading his crew chief headset for one hooked to your TV next season.

Letarte is making The Right Move.

The NASCAR season is brutal for crew members. The roller coaster never stops. You’re at the shop all week, on a plane or in a car headed for somewhere 38 Thursdays a year, there’s always something that has to be done yesterday and no choice of whether or not to do it. 

A lot of these people have families, children. To heir is human, after all. That’s tough on the loved ones at home, because you’re never around. I’ve done all 36 races a couple of times, and it is rewarding, but not when it comes to your brood.

Not only are you missing out on that collection of moments that weaves the fabric of your family history, you’re usually so caught up in the day-to-day goings-on that you’re not able to see the forest for the trees in the first place.

This is a lifestyle that lends itself to burnout.

Letarte has been with Hendrick Motorsports since 1995, when he was 16 years old. Next season, it will have been 20 years. He’s been a crew chief for a long time, since 2005, for Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 

That’s some serious business, right there. Two of the most popular drivers in the sport, and you’re sitting there on the box, in full view of God and everyone, and they’re all nit-picking and kvetching and telling Mr. Hendrick you need to go…so that their driver can win every race, every title and every award.

It never plays out that way…well, Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have come as close as anyone since Earnhardt and Petty, but it usually never works out that way.

Steve Letarte has a boy and a girl at home that he’d like to see grow up. His wife is like all the other NASCAR wives, holding down the fort while Daddy works his tail off. When NBC came down the pike, Letarte grabbed on with both hands and made the move.

Good for him.

I can’t blame him. Not one bit. As a guy who has always been in motorsports, his life is my life (well, without the motorhome, the fame and the paycheck, anyway). 

He made the choice to get down off the box and up in the booth, making a 50-week year into a 25-week year and easing back into his role as father and husband.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the 88 team will move right along without him. They always do. 

That’s the real story, and Steve Letarte did what was best for him and his family.