In four years (2007-2010) before joining forces with Letarte — one at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and his first three with Hendrick Motorsports — Earnhardt had one win, 22 top-five finishes, 41 top 10 finishes and averaged an 18.5-place finish in the standings. In his last four seasons, he’s earned five victories, 36 top fives, 74 top 10s and an 8.5 average finish in the points standings.

"I’ve said this before and no one believes me, but the truth be known, I really don’t think I’ve done much in the last four years," Letarte said. "I think Dale has done it all, and I just get a lot of the credit.

"I think Dale and I both at the end of 2010 were at a point in our career that we had to look in the mirror and decide how much effort we were willing to put in to turn it around for both of us. Luckily for me, his answer to that question was whatever it took, and my (answer) was whatever it took. And we surrounded ourselves with a bunch of guys that had the same answer and that’s what we’ve done."

Both Letarte and Mike Davis, director of communications for JR Motorsports, remembered the turning point that led to the No. 88’s successful run. The secret was a renewed focus on racing.

"This started with a meeting with Mike, and he looked at me like I was crazy when I said, ‘Alright, Mike. Here’s the deal. I need Dale at the truck at this time. We’re going to do this, we’re going to do no media here, no appearances here and block out his time,’" Letarte recalled of his 2010 meeting with Davis.

"And I could see the look on Mike’s face like, ‘Oh yeah, this is really going to fly right here. This is going to be big.’ And really it was great, and guys like Mike helped me and support those plans and we went back to racing. We made racing the priority and that, I think, has been the No. 1 breakthrough in the last four years."

Davis shared his side of the conversation and the exchange he had with Earnhardt that led to Junior’s return to the driver that won 17 races with a 9.6 average points finish in his first seven years in the sport from 2000-2006.

"Me and you probably talked for about an hour, but what you probably don’t know and nobody knows except Dale is that I emailed him probably minutes after you and I got done meeting," Davis said. "And I told Dale, I said, ‘This is what Steve expects, and my advice here is if you do this, this is going to be your best shot at winning the championship.’"

"I felt that that absolutely was what he needed and what he wanted. He wanted that authority to keep him accountable, and you brought that. And I think absolutely that has a lot to do with his change on the personal level as well, but it started in that garage."

Letarte, who was 16 when he started at Hendrick Motorsports, said he understood the importance of accountability from his earliest days with the company, and he applied it to his teams when he became a crew chief for Jeff Gordon in 2005.

"What we learned at the 48/88, back when it was the 24 and the 48 and back when it was only the 24 run by Ray Evernham is our motto is simple: Everyone’s accountable," Letarte said. "It doesn’t guarantee any sort of success. This sport is too tough. But if no one is accountable, that guarantees pretty close to failure because there’s no way you’re going to be able to beat teams that show up prepared, show up ready to race."

After 10 years and 330 races, Letarte plans to follow the same plan for success when he heads to the NBC Sports booth in 2015.

"I think we’re going to be really serious about it," Letarte said. "Myself and Jeff Burton and Rick Allen are going to watch some races together just to see if we all watch a race the same way, we all see the same race, we all see the same exciting event.

"And then as we get closer, I think we’re really going to practice. I think we’re going to set up a booth and go in there and pretend we’re on the air."

Since announcing that he would join the NBC booth last January during preseason testing at Daytona, Letarte said his future employer has been "very respectful" of his time during his final season as a crew chief. His wife has worked with the broadcaster to set a schedule for the race analyst to follow during the first half of next season before NBC’s first race in July at Daytona.

"NBC doesn’t do anything, I’ve learned, halfway," Letarte said. "They’re committed to the sport for at least 10 years, and they’re committed to this broadcast team and we want to make sure that we give the same commitment back so we’re going to practice and do everything we can," Letarte said.

"Because my goal is the 16-year-old kid with his dad and then his grandmother sitting in the living room, I can talk to all of them. And if I can excite all three of them about NASCAR as excited as I am about NASCAR, then it’ll be job well done."

Although it will be his first full-time experience in television, Letarte’s track record at Hendrick Motorsports, the only place he’s ever worked, suggests it will be a job well done. And the man who started his career sweeping floors at the age of 16 might inspire another 16-year-old to grow up and complete a season sweep of Pocono.

"Without a doubt, I could sweep a mean floor back at 16," Letarte said. "It propelled me to some great opportunities, and I’m sure I’m going to take a minute at the top of the pit box (at Homestead-Miami) and remember it because I don’t know if I’ll ever get back on top of a pit box and call a race."

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