Sunoco Pit Move: Darlington Raceway

The Midas touch? Crew chief Steve Letarte has it right now. Every decision he makes turns out golden.

His decision to keep Jeff Gordon on the track -- and in the lead -- with 21 laps to go as many of the other contenders pitted for fresh tires turned out to be the winning move in Sunday's Dodge Avenger 500 at Darlington Raceway.

That, and a huge assist from the Hendrick Motorsports engine shop, as Gordon's overheated engine somehow held together -- despite a steady geyser of steam coming out of the radiator overflow -- to fend off a final challenge from Denny Hamlin over the closing laps.

"I noticed that the water temperature went up and it wasn't coming back down," Gordon said. "Usually when you come down pit road it goes up a little bit. It went way up and didn't come back down.

"I thought there's no way we were going to make it. I've never seen gauges that looked like that and [have] an engine make it to the end. That's a testament to Hendrick Motorsports and [the] engine department."

Stranded around 10th position for much of the first half of the race, Letarte's decision to pit late during a rash of green-flag stops got Gordon some much-needed track position while other cars ducked back in for service during the caution that came out shortly thereafter.

"[What] really turned it around was that green-flag cycle," Letarte said. "We really weren't good enough to short pit. At that point we were just trying to get the best finish we could so we decided to stay out and hope for a caution and it didn't come and then just a lap after we pitted it did come which worked out good. We had fresh tires so we decided to stay out and that moved us into the top five."

Then the sun finally broke through the clouds, allowing Gordon's car to handle better. At the same time, the No. 24 began overheating with more than 100 laps remaining.

"The car just handled quite a bit different in the top five and I think we made better decisions as a group and maybe had a little better read on our car since we were in clean air," Letarte said. "Once it started to overheat, we pulled all our tape off but there really was no other fix."

While the team could only watch following their final stop on Lap 335, Gordon did all he could to keep as much air circulating around the engine compartment as possible. (Continued)