Steve Letarte of NBC weighs in on Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Sunday's Martinsville race

Earnhardt revealed in April that he would retire as a NASCAR driver at the end of this season, so Sunday’s Monster Energy Cup race will mark the last time he is behind the wheel at Martinsville Speedway.

But NBC announced in July that Earnhardt will join the network’s NASCAR team beginning next season in an unspecified role.

Letarte served as Earnhardt’s crew chief before moving up to the booth in 2015 to become the co-analyst with Jeff Burton on NBC’s race telecasts. He expects Earnhardt will be a successful commentator.

“What makes Dale so well-liked is his candor,” Letarte said Friday in a phone interview. “He just tells you what he’s thinking, and I think that’s the key to this job.

“His opinions are going to vary from mine and vary from Jeff’s. I think that makes for great television. ... I have no doubt he’ll put the time and effort into being very good at his job.”

Letarte will team with Burton and play-by-play man Rick Allen for the NBC Sports Network telecast of the First Data 500 on Sunday. Earnhardt will wear NBC’s helmet visor camera to provide viewers with an in-car look at the race.

Earnhardt has yet to win this season, but Letarte considers him a contender at the paper clip.

“He runs good at the short tracks,” Letarte said. “Hendrick Motorsports has struggled a little bit on the bigger tracks this year. [But] that’s the beauty of short-track racing. Aerodynamics isn’t a key. Horsepower’s not a key. It comes down to driver communication, good strategy, a good setup.

“I don’t see why he shouldn’t be right up front there over the course of the weekend.”

Martinsville has always been special to Letarte. His first win as a crew chief came there in 2005, when he worked for Jeff Gordon.

Letarte’s final win also came at Martinsville, when he was Earnhardt’s crew chief for the fall 2014 race.

“We were eliminated from the playoffs, so we kind of went to Martinsville with no pressure and just the idea of ‘Let’s enjoy these final four races we have together,’ ” Letarte said. “We were kind of grinding away, grinding away and then in the last 20 percent of the race it became clear there was the chance ... to win the race. It was kind of surreal when we finally won it.”

Earnhardt is NASCAR’s most popular driver, but Letarte isn’t fretting that the sport will suffer when Earnhardt retires.

“Him not driving is going ... to be a major change, but we have such a great upcoming wave of young drivers, whether it’s Chase Elliott or Kyle Larson or Ryan Blaney,” Letarte said.

“And the beauty is they all kind of have their own personalities and they’re really shining through. And I think the fan base can then go find the driver that suits them. ... Every driver should be hated by some. Every driver should be loved by some.

Elliott has 10 top-five finishes this season but does not have a victory to show for it.

“He needs a win. That’s the elephant in the room,” Letarte said. “At some point you want to break through. ... It’s just not an up year for Hendrick. ... His performance is good. It’s just not a year in which the company is dominating.”

Letarte points to another Hendrick driver — Jimmie Johnson — as being a top contender Sunday.

“Johnson knows his quest for an eighth [Cup] title runs through Martinsville,” Letarte said. “I think maybe it’s going to be a 10th win [for him] ... at Martinsville.”

The Cup champ this year could wind up being Martin Truex Jr., who has won seven times this season.

“[There is] a unique relationship between [crew chief] Cole Pearn and Martin Truex Jr. where they beat to their own drum,” Letarte said. “They don’t care what everyone else thinks and they are finding success doing it their own way. I think when a team gets to that point, it makes them even harder to derail.”

Matt Kenseth and Larson were eliminated from playoff contention at last weekend’s race in Kansas. Larson’s engine blew, while Kenseth was penalized under NASCAR rules for having too many crew members over the pit wall after a wreck.

“I don’t love the rule,” Letarte said. “I think it was needed to enforce the damaged-vehicle policy.

“Look, it’s hard, but so is winning a championship. Look at Kyle Larson — one engine failure, that’s all it takes. People can talk about fair, but sports aren’t fair. Sports are pressure-filled.”

Source: roanoke