Analyst defends Gordon's crew chief for two-tire stop at Vegas

Jeff Gordon's crew chief, Steve Letarte, has caught some heat this week from fans for his decision to change only two tires on the final pit stop of last weekend's race at Las Vegas instead of four tires. While the two tires got Gordon out of the pits sooner, teammate Jimmie Johnson changed four tires and caught Gordon and got by him to win a race that Gordon had dominated (leading all but 48 of the 267 laps)

Since, some have put the blame on Letarte for Gordon not winning that race. I talked to ESPN analyst Andy Petree, who won championships in 1993 and '94 as Dale Earnhardt's crew chief, about a few topics on Thursday. One was how Gordon has said that he and his team need to be more aggressive in going for wins. I asked Petree about this philosophy and how it's played out so far. Here's what Petree told me:

"He's got to,'' Petree said. "Right now, Jimmie is better than Jeff. So Jeff has got to figure out a way to beat him. And he's going to have do some things that are risky. They did it this past week. They rolled the dice and got two tires because they didn't want have to pass Jimmie to win. That's why they did that. They didn't want have to pass him to win that race. So, they felt they would put themselves out front (with the two-tire stop). They're doing what they need to do. They've got a fast car. They're going to win some races. Yeah, I think it's the right thing to do. I think Jeff needs to be more aggressive. I think he needs to put more, if not just an absolute focus on winning races. If they don't really focus on winning every week, they're not going to be able to beat (Johnson).''

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