Letarte to Chasers: We're not going to lay over

Last Sunday, the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team bowed out of the Chase for NASCAR Sprint Cup at Talladega Superspeedway following a 31st-place finish in a must-win race. On Monday's edition of SiriusXM NASCAR Radio's "The Morning Drive," Letarte was already looking ahead to getting his second win at Martinsville Speedway in the Goody's Headache Relief Shot 500 (Sunday, 1:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

"We went up there as a company and tested a couple of months ago to try to improve our product there," Letarte said. "We did not take it lightly when the 41 (Kurt Busch) outran us there in the spring.

"I can't think of a better way to rebound from getting kicked out of the Chase and proving to all of the guys that are advancing in the Chase that we're not just going to lay over for them, and we want to go up there and win a clock."

In his first start as a crew chief with Jeff Gordon at Martinsville, Letarte won. Both the track and racing itself have changed a lot over nine years, but patience is the winning strategy.

"Since 2005 I've been trying to figure out the elusive way to get back into Victory Lane. And I remember how he did it then," Letarte said "The track has changed quite a bit. Double-file restarts have changed things.

"Really Martinsville comes down to the last 50 or 75 laps. You run 400 laps to stay in the top 10, to save your tires, save your brakes. It's a… patience tester."

In the last seven starts at the half-mile paperclip-shaped track, the No. 88 has five finishes of eighth or better, including a third-place finish in March and a runner-up result in the spring of 2011 to Kevin Harvick.

"Dale and I have been close," Letarte said. "We've had the lead there coming to the white (flag), and our car just lost rear grip. We get a little loose into (Turn) 3, and Harvick got by us.

"The race is won in the last 60 laps, and we've seen it in a bunch of different ways. We saw it in the spring with the 41 car passing guys for the win."

In his last season as a crew chief before moving on to the NBC Sports booth as an analyst next season, Letarte reflects on those two races with regret when he thinks about how he could have won more than four races with Earnhardt Jr.

"…maybe it's because I'm getting closer to the end of my career, those are the races that I look back on, wishing we could have done something a little different because it's so hard to win in this series against all these race competitors and the ones that you were close at, those are ones that hurt the most," Letarte said.

Letarte hopes to get four more trophies with Earnhardt Jr. before the end of the season. That's especially true this weekend at Martinsville, so Dale Jr. can join his outgoing crew chief in the club that owns a Ridgeway grandfather clock. This fall, the track celebrates the 50th anniversary of giving away the iconic trophy to race winners. NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen earned the first clock on Sept. 27, 1964.

In his sixth race after taking over for Robbie Loomis on the No. 24 pit box in 2005, Letarte got his first win as a crew chief. It was the seventh victory and seventh clock for Gordon, so he gave the first-time winner the prize.

"Jeff just looked at me and he just pointed and said, 'That one's yours,' Letarte said.

"So when the guy from Ridgeway drove down in the infield and said, 'Hey, I've got this trophy. Where does it go?' I said, 'I got you. It goes right here in the back of this truck. This truck's mine.' And now it's in my basement.

"…I have a little trophy case downstairs, and that one's down there. Every time I walk by, it brings back great memories of a race that … set my career path I think. I had a chance to crew chief Jeff Gordon, and we won really early in our career together."

Now Letarte hopes to return the favor, winning late in his own career and in his fourth year with Earnhardt Jr.

MORE: