Victory lane empty: With Gordon winless, Letarte under fire
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| Steve Letarte, left, has come under some fire from Jeff Gordon's fans for Gordon's winless 2008 season. Photo: Roy Dabner/Associated Press |
CONCORD, N.C. — Jeff Gordon has just eight more races to make it to Victory Lane and avoid his first winless season since his 1993 rookie year.
To some, crew chief Steve Letarte is squarely to blame. Gordon won't stand for it.
"Steve is an amazing crew chief," he said. "Whenever we're not performing, my fans seem to stay loyal to me, and I appreciate that. But I'm as much a part of this team and its performance as anybody else out there."
But Gordon has been spared much of the criticism in a season that can only be described as disappointing. He heads into Round 3 of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship ranked eighth in the standings, 118 points behind leader Carl Edwards.
His winless streak has reached 33 straight races, dating back to an October win at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and he's led more than 10 laps in a race just six times this season.
Letarte, who started working at Hendrick in the parts department as a teenager and moved through the ranks to the top job with Hendrick's winningest team, admits this season has been underwhelming for the No. 24 crew.
Letarte also has support from team owner Rick Hendrick, who finds it somewhat amusing that the crew chief is being scrutinized after such a successful 2007 season. Instead, Hendrick blames this season's struggles on a combination of bad luck, NASCAR's finicky new car, Gordon's difficulty adapting to driving it full time, and team-related miscues.
"He didn't go brain dead this year. It's really easy, in this sport, if the guy wins, it's his talent," Hendrick said. "And if he doesn't, it's the crew chief's fault. The crew chief kind of walks a plank by himself."
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