Here’s what one former NASCAR crew chief thinks about the Cup Series Championship 4
NBC Sports race analyst and former NASCAR crew chief Steve Letarte knows what it takes to win from atop the pit box. He scored 15 Cup wins as a Hendrick Motorsports crew chief working with famed drivers Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. between 2005 and 2014.
He’ll be watching this year’s Cup championship finale from the broadcast booth as two Hendrick drivers, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, duel with Joe Gibbs Racing cars driven by Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.
Letarte spoke with the Observer ahead of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Championship (3 p.m. EST on NBC) to preview the final race of the season. This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Alex Andrejev: How do you feel about how the Championship 4 driver lineup shaped up? Do you think these were the four best teams this year?
Steve Letarte: Well they’re one through four in laps led. That’s a pretty good metric to tell you how much they race towards the front. I think if I had to handicap it, I could make a great argument why each of them could win. I could make a great argument why each of them could lose. One of the reasons I love sports is that it’s not a popularity contest. No offense to the media, which I’m a part of, but it’s not a news bite. It’s the only real reality TV. There are the “reality TV shows” that are scripted reality. Well, sports are not. We can’t script a good race. We can’t script a boring race. It has to happen organically. I think the four we see at Phoenix are a great four. The system in the sport has said they’re the right four. I think the fans are going to be delivered a pretty captivating day in Phoenix, which is always your hope and goal for the fan base. I think each round of the playoffs had its own identity, even the regular season had its own identity, and I think that’s really the key. When you have a season as long as NASCAR, I think the playoffs can help break up 36 weeks.
AA: The pace of the playoffs, we’ve seen two dramatic cutoff races at short tracks with Bristol and Martinsville. You’ve talked about Martinsville being one of your favorite tracks before. Do you think NASCAR needs more short tracks in its schedule?
SL: I think the key to the NASCAR schedule is variety. I don’t think it’s more short tracks, I don’t think it’s more road courses, I don’t think it’s more anything. I think it’s change. We can’t get into a schedule that looks the same five years from now as it does now. The cars are gonna change, the fan appetites are gonna change. Much like products, you can market anything you want, a good product is gonna end up surviving because people will purchase it and continue to purchase it. I think the fans will determine where we should race...I think as a sport we’re doing that. I think we’re seeing the schedule get chopped up and changed every week. I think the NASCAR executives are doing a great job with that. I don’t think the answer is more short tracks or anything, I think it’s consistent with what the fans want. And that’s really the key.
AA: It seemed like all the Hendrick cars were such a factor in that race at Martinsville. One question I was left with was whether they’d be a factor in Sunday’s race.
SL: I believe you’re gonna see four Hendrick teams in the top 10 and four Gibbs teams in the top 10, but I think the playoff four will matriculate to the front. If you go back to Martinsville, and what happened between Denny (Hamlin) and Alex (Bowman), I think that’s gonna continue to push forward into Phoenix as far as people recognizing it. And I say that because my analysis is Alex Bowman made a mistake getting loose. He was up the racetrack, wrecked Denny, not maliciously, but the fact is he caused the accident. And I believe that what happened last week is behind us, but all those non-playoff guys, they really don’t want to be part of the story at Phoenix. It’s the championship race. I do believe that if they have good enough cars, they’ll lead, they’ll absolutely lead, but if a playoff driver is driving 100%, I imagine most playoff drivers they battle are gonna drive at 95%. If there are cars good enough where driving 95% can still overtake the leader, then go and get it, show us that guy’s not good enough. But I also believe they’ll have to give themselves that little bit of wiggle room so that they don’t affect who the champion may be.
AA: I listened to your comments on the NBC podcast about the Hamlin-Bowman situation. I’ve also been thinking about Hamlin as this new NASCAR villain since he’s said he doesn’t care about the boos, and almost been leaning into it (using it as fuel). Do you have thoughts on that?
SL: I think that with these sports stars, and I’m guilty of it with other sports, that we think that because they’re on TV or they’re in the news and they do things that regular people can’t do — I wish I could drive like Denny Hamlin, I wish I could throw a football like Tom Brady. I can’t. Sometimes I think that we do lose touch that they’re human and each day is a brand new day. Everybody has some emotional baggage, from how you’ve been treated at other races and how other races have gone, whether it’s your own mistakes or somebody else’s mistakes and those all add up into what we see and whether we cheer for a driver or not cheer for a driver. What I read into Denny Hamlin’s comments what that he feels that most people can’t understand the disappointment of that one race. I think as NASCAR fans, we should love that it meant as much to a guy trying to win his 47th race as a guy trying to win his sixth. Even after 46 race wins, a race win still has that much value to Denny Hamlin. That makes the sport authentic and that’s one reason I love it. As to whether he’s the villain, or this or that, time will tell...I’ve learned a long time ago not to guess what these drivers are thinking...You know, this isn’t new, whether it’s (Kevin) Harvick or Chase (Elliott), Hamlin. What makes NASCAR great is that the rivalries have to go on track each and every week, so we’ll see how they react. But it’s gonna happen again. There are gonna be run-ins. I think a lot of how these things get handled are so finely done by the drivers, it’s hard for us to even perceive the rivalries. It’s all moments of time during the race where these drivers know whether a spot wasn’t given or it wasn’t conceded or a battle was continued because of a respect level between drivers. Kind of like hockey. We see the fight. I’m not sure we see the 15 things that led up to the fight. Like in NASCAR. We see the big moment, but I’m well aware that if you watched one car the entire day, you would have a better idea of what his day was really like, and the hundreds of moments that happened lap after lap.
AA: You mentioned that there are arguments for each driver to win or lose Sunday. What’s a summary of how you see this final race going?
SL: Kyle Larson, nine wins. It wouldn’t shock me to get his tenth. I think we’ve seen he has the most speed, he’s won in everything he’s driven, but self-admittedly when you look at the Chili Bowl and some other big events, it doesn’t seem obvious on the outside, but on the inside, he’s had some quotes where he’s had to deal with the big moments. So with his first trip to Phoenix in the Championship 4, is that a big deal to him? Does it affect his approach, his decision making, or does it not? No idea. We’re gonna have to wait and see. That’s kinda the positive-negative for Kyle Larson. When I go down to Chase Elliott, simply, he hasn’t won on an oval this year. Do I think he can win at Phoenix? I do. But he’s gonna have to prove it this year by winning on an oval. But he’s the defending champ, so I think that says enough that him and his crew chief know how to win out there. His crew chief has more wins than the other crew chiefs combined. That’s my in a nutshell of Chase Elliott. I look at Denny Hamlin, the man’s won 46 races in his career. He’s been in the Championship 4 as many times as anybody. You have to admit, that at some point, his number will come up. I think he’s proven he can win. He has to prove he can win a championship, but I’m a guy that believes that over time your odds go up, so you have to think Denny Hamlin has a chance. And then Martin Truex Jr. Which guy shows up? If it’s the driver and team from the spring that won at Phoenix and has won four races this year then he absolutely can be the champion. He’s been the champion before. But if it’s the 19 car that kinda lacked some speed the second half of the year, then I don’t think he’ll have the speed to keep up. I don’t know how all four of those (drivers) are gonna show up, and that’s what’s beautiful. See a little practice, a little qualifying, but then at the end, drop the green, and all the storylines and stats and soundbites don’t matter. At some point in this race, there’s gonna be a moment. It could be Lap 50. It could be at Lap 250. Which driver will succeed in that moment? And that’s why we’re all gonna have to tune in.
