NASCAR veteran Larry Carter, thought to be the leading candidate to succeed John Darby as Sprint Cup Director, is trying to help Robby Gordon get his car sorted out this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Carter, who has served a crew chief for a number of NASCAR drivers, denied reports that he was going to work as crew chief for Gordon. Instead, he described his role as a “consultant” to Gordon, who has struggled to find both performance and enough sponsorship to run the entire season. In fact, Gordon is partnering with BAM Motorsports this year in an attempt to run as many Cup races as possible.

“I’m going to help Robby, do a little consulting, look things over, see if there’s things I can help him with,” Carter said Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “Iain Watt, who’s been serving as Robby’s crew chief, is going to continue in that capacity. I’m just going to help Iain and see if can get things on track a little bit here.”

Carter said he likes what he’s seen so far at Robby Gordon Motorsports.

“He’s got some really nice race cars,” said Carter, who has been crew chief for Rusty Wallace, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard and other. “I’ve been really impressed with his shop and he’s got a nice shop and lot of good people there. They just maybe need a little direction to get things rolling in the right direction.”

The team does have a new car chief this weekend, Jay Lupo, who moved over from Hendrick Motorsports.