Steve Letarte has had enough of all the chatter surrounding how non-playoff drivers should race contenders, or how owner-drivers like Denny Hamlin should approach battles against those in their own teams. That\u2019s not what racing is about, and the NASCAR insider has recently called for a major change in the narrative.<\/p>\n
There are those who want to see sportsmanship on the track, but there is a line between being self-destructive and showing respect.<\/p>\n
As far as Letarte<\/a> <\/strong>is concerned, NASCAR drivers must put self-interest above all else. No matter how deep team loyalties run, every driver ultimately races for himself, and that is exactly how it should be.<\/p>\n Speaking on NASCAR\u2019s Inside the Race podcast, Letarte didn\u2019t mince words. \u201cI\u2019m so sick of team talk\u2026 I just want to say that\u2026 look, they\u2019re teams, and they\u2019re going to do all this stuff, but at the same time, we need as selfish race car drivers as possible because the group is too tough to think I\u2019m so good that I\u2019m going to get through, and I\u2019m going to bring you with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Letarte recalled<\/a><\/strong>, \u201cCrew chief for Dale Jr. and Jeff Gordon. And we used to have those meetings. They would all talk about working together, and they would both be like, \u2018Hey, man. I\u2019m going to do the best, but if I can\u2019t help you, yeah, don\u2019t worry about helping me.\u2019 Like, they were both very selfish, which is why they were so good at what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n The 46-year-old acknowledged that moments to help a teammate may still arise, but he prefers to see drivers go all out, even if it means trading paint within the same organization. For him, fierce competition is the lifeblood of the sport.<\/p>\n Former driver Kyle Petty<\/a><\/strong> has long echoed a similar sentiment, arguing that Hamlin\u2019s unapologetic selfishness, which he showed at Kansas against Wallace<\/a><\/strong>, is precisely what keeps NASCAR entertaining. Without drivers willing to push their teammates to the edge, the races would lose their spark. Hamlin\u2019s \u201cI, I, I\u201d mentality<\/a>,<\/strong> Petty believes, fuels the intensity fans crave.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr. backed Hamlin\u2019s competitive drive but urged a touch more restraint when dealing with his own team. According to Junior, Hamlin could have handled the situation with Bubba Wallace more tactfully, ensuring the battle didn\u2019t hand a Chevrolet driver the win while Toyota teammates tripped over each other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Letarte has had enough of all the chatter surrounding how non-playoff drivers should race contenders, or how…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":283230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[22019,11130,1406,145982,62,143228,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-283229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-bubba-wallace","9":"tag-denny-hamlin","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-nascar-cup-playoffs","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-steve-letarte","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115331070882599214","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}