Why Jeff Gordon's Crew Chief Must Go

There were high hopes for the Dupont Chevrolet piloted by Jeff Gordon and crew chiefed by Steve Letarte at the road race this weekend at Watkins Glen.  This was a track that Gordon enjoyed and where he has had much success.  The team even dared to imagine that Gordon could break his winless streak and take them all to victory lane. 

But that was not to be and the primary reason was the total inability of crew chief Steve Letarte to meet the needs of his driver.

The fact that Jeff Gordon's radio was inoperable for the initial part of the race was symbolic of the lack of communication between this four-time champion and his crew chief.  

Gordon, known for his road racing skills and a past winner at this track, did not even know when to pit and had to be "posted", a process where his crew chief had to ask NASCAR to put his driver's number on the pylon so Jeff would know that Letarte was trying to contact him. 

This too was symbolic of the total disconnect between driver and crew chief, which unfortunately lasted the entire 90 laps of the race.

Gordon started well, in the sixth position due to qualifying being cancelled for rain and the field being set by owners' points.  But he quickly faded back, fighting a loose car from the very beginning.

Then came the communication problems and, for some reason, Gordon and Letarte could not hear each other over the radio.  When Gordon finally got the "post" to pit, he was one of the last to do so on the race track. 

At that stop, radio communication was restored but communication between driver and crew chief remained difficult.

At the next stop, Gordon's team was directed by Letarte to make wholesale changes to the car to hopefully get it more to Jeff's liking.  These changes took forever and put Gordon even further back in the pack. 

And the changes did nothing to help his handling, putting him deep in the pack for quite some time.

Even Letarte bringing Gordon down pit lane yet again to try four fresh tires accomplished little and Gordon continued to languish in the rear of the field.

Fortunately, Gordon missed the huge crash towards the end of the race, but just barely.  The race was red-flagged for quite some time for the emergency crews to tend to battered drivers, race cars, and the track.  This wreck actually did help him, as he gained positions on those cars out of the race.

Gordon's day was about to get worse, however, when on the last lap, he spun out, dropping his position back to 29th, where he finished this most terrible day.

Gordon has a habit of sticking by his crew chiefs through thick and thin.  But just as his faithful fans knew it was time for Robbie Loomis to go, it is also now time for Steve Letarte to move on.  Jeff Gordon must have a new crew chief with a better ability to set the car up the way Jeff needs it, or he will most certainly be out of the championship chase.