Team DuPont pitches in on Hope Park

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (March 11, 2010) – Crew chief Steve Letarte and the No. 24 DuPont team volunteered their time on Wednesday to help build Hope Park, a 20,000-square-foot, motorsports-themed community playground at Lowe’s YMCA in Mooresville. Letarte, who always is looking for team-building events for his No. 24 crew, decided to get the group involved after talking with Danielle Frye. Frye, a pit reporter for Motor Racing Network, helped organize the playground build at Hope Park. Various NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, teams, foundations like The Dale Earnhardt Jr. Foundation, tracks and sponsors have gotten involved in the effort, which is expected to be completed Sunday. “We always look for team building events for the DuPont team, so to come up here as a team, especially on an off weekend, the timing felt really good,” Letarte said. “And I think it’s important for these guys to work together and to see there’s more to life than just racing. So to come up here to help the community to give back to the people who support you when you go out of town every week to go race, I think it was important for these guys to come up. “It looks like they’re having a whole lot of fun.” Click here for photos of the crew members at work. With rain looming in the forecast, the group worked efficiently. Letarte and rear-tire changer Joe Slingerland operated a circular saw for most of the afternoon, cutting pieces for the builders. “I think it’s great to help the community,” Slingerland said. “I never got the chance to do anything like this and especially with the team, it’s a great team building activity as Stevie said. It’s just something to do for the community.” For an afternoon, the crew members traded in setting up Chevrolets for aligning posts perfectly in the park. “Well, we’re having a great time,” mechanic Travis Mack said. “We’re learning how to work together in different fields that’s for sure. It’s pretty exciting to get out of the shop and do something different for a change. It’s fun to help out and do what we can for the community especially since we know our teamwork stuff. We work good as a team and get stuff done. It’s what we do.”