Gordon defends crew chief Letarte

The Hendrick driver was runner-up in the championship last year after a season-long battle with his teammate Jimmie Johnson, but this year Gordon has not matched Johnson's performance on a regular basis.

Gordon has had a tough time at most of the intermediate tracks, where the handling of his car has been far from optimum.

Johnson had similar problems at the start of the season, but while he and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, have been able to overcome them, Gordon and Letarte have yet to solve their set-up issues.

"I'm extremely happy with the job that Steve's done," said Gordon. "You know, he's really a sharp guy. I think being a crew chief is definitely a tough position to be in.

"What does it take to be the perfect crew chief? That's the ongoing question for everybody because I believe that the crew chief has so many more jobs underneath them today than there used to be.

"It's about delegating those jobs, it's about overseeing people and managing those people, calling those shots on the pit box."

Gordon returned to form in testing this week by topping the two-day's of Sprint Cup running at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

The Californian says people quickly forget Letarte's role in the great season he had last year and thinks it's unfair that his crew chief has been criticised simply because this season's results have not been as good as those in 2007.

"He and I work very well together," Gordon added. "We communicate very well. Unfortunately, we just haven't seen the results like we did last year.

"It's really easy to put aside or forget what we did last year, which to me was one of the best seasons I've ever had in the Cup. Things haven't gone our way for whatever reason, but I believe he's the guy for the job and he's a confident guy that does the job well.

"I hate that he gets the criticism. But it is, as we're seeing with other crew chiefs, sort of the nature of the business."

Letarte has served as crew chief for Jeff Gordon since taking over from Robbie Loomis when the team failed to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2005. Gordon has not won a title since the 2001 season.