The city of Nashville, Ole Red Tavern on Broadway, a bunch of friends, a houseful crowd, and loads of beer made the perfect ambiance to reminisce about the past years. Hosting a bonus episode of his ‘Dale Jr Download’ podcast in front of a live audience, Dale Earnhardt Jr was joined by co-host Mike Davis and HMS legend Steve Letarte. With guest appearances from Barstool’s Will Compton and Alex Bowman, the chats ranged from NASCAR’s current season to old race stories. 

On the topic of old race stories, Letarte touched on Dale Jr’s ignorance at Richmond years ago.

HMS Legend Reveals How Dale Earnhardt Jr Almost Jeopardized His Playoff Spot

Now an NBC commentator, Steve Letarte served as a crew chief for Hendrick Motorsports for almost ten seasons. Starting out as the crew chief for Jeff Gordon in 2005, Letarte was assigned to Dale Earnhardt Jr in 2011 and would carry out his crew chief duties till 2014. During his four seasons with Junior, the duo tasted immense success. Currently serving as commentators for NASCAR on NBC, the legendary HMS duo spoke on the fateful events during their time at HMS.

Delving into old stories, Junior spoke about an incident that occurred years ago at Richmond Raceway.

Having damaged his car during the course of a race, the front bumper was chopped off from Dale Jr’s car. “I’m in the car. I can’t see the damage. I drive away, come down Pit Road, they cut and carry on. And I don’t know this, but they’ve cut the whole right front off the car. There’s nothing but a tire.”

On hearing this, Steve Letarte said, “So wait wait wait wait, what did you tell me today about listening to me? What was the statement?”

“I don’t listen to every word that comes out of your mouth,” Junior said.

Steve Letarte went on, “This night in Richmond would have been a perfect example because I explained exactly the damage that was on this race car.”

Revealing how Letarte saved him from jeopardizing his playoff position, Dale Earnhardt Jr added, “He did not. I go out there and I’m racing, and I’m like, my car’s good and so I’m catching people and I’m trying to bump ‘em, and he’s like ‘Quit it you don’t have a bumper! Quit doing that, you’re gonna knock the radiator out of it!’ I’m like ‘What? There’s no bumper?”

“So we somehow make it into the playoffs, this is what happened. He stops on Pit Road like everything’s fine, he gets out he turns around, and looks in front of the car. He goes ‘Holy sh*t! You should have told me to look like that.’I said ‘We did multiple times but you didn’t want to hear us,’” Letarte chipped in.

The story was nothing less than hilarious, but there is no denying how perfect Dale Earnhardt Jr and Steve Letarte were as a team. 

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The winning recipe: Dale Earnhardt Jr and Steve Letarte

Post the 2004 season, Dale Earnhardt Jr seemed to fall into a slump. Paired with Steve Letarte in 2011, Junior’s luck turned around. Although missing out on a Cup Series championship title, the HMS #88 duo went on to bag multiple titles together.

Putting an end to Dale Jr’s 143 races winless streak, Letarte led Junior to bag the 2012 Quicken Loans 400 title. The duo then went on to win the prestigious Daytona 500 in 2014. Bagging multiple wins in the 2014 season with Dale Jr, Letarte retired from the sport with an eighth-place finish on the Cup Series standings.

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Working together as commentators now, we hope the legendary HMS duo treats fans to more inside stories in the near future.