Park stepping up big for DEI

By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
April 2, 2001
4:23 PM EDT (2023 GMT)

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Steve Park's emergence as a NASCAR Winston Cup championship contender in 2001 was not totally inconceivable.

Steve Park leads Dale Jarrett at Texas.

But the impact Park, 33, has had in his fourth year in the series for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. is nothing short of immense. Park, who signaled his arrival in the sport's upper echelon with his win last August at Watkins Glen International, has become the standard-bearer for DEI.

His second-place finish to points leader Dale Jarrett Sunday in the Harrah's 500 at Texas Motor Speedway only reinforced his status in that role. Heading into this weekend's Virginia 500 at Martinsville Speedway, where Park enjoyed success in the Featherlite Modified Series, he's an undisputed favorite for his third career Cup win.

While Michael Waltrip won the season-opening Daytona 500 and Dale Earnhardt Jr. the Bud Pole for the Harrah's 500, Park has consistently been the most-competitive and well-placed DEI driver at the season's first seven races.

Going into Martinsville, Park is firmly entrenched in fourth in the standings, his career-best mark at this point in the season.

"I hadn't really put much thought in it -- we're just going out there and doing what our job is," said Park, who scored an emotional second straight 2001 win for DEI at Rockingham, followed up with two second places, including one on Sunday. "That's going out there and trying to win these races."

That was something that as little as two years ago was incomprehensible for Park, who has been successful at every step on the NASCAR career ladder, including Modifieds, Busch North, Craftsman Trucks and Busch Grand National before he broke through in the NWCS. His union with crew chief Paul Andrews, which began in the spring of 1999 and immediately paid off in improved performance, has reached a new plateau this season.

"When we're back at the shop, we work as one organization," said Park, whose at-track performance in the No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet has out-stripped his teammates. "There's a lot of common things that we share, but it's what each crew chief does with that stuff that is the only thing that really separates the teams more at the race track."

Steve Park finds himself fourth in the Winston Cup standings after seven races.

So far this season, the Park-Andrews package has outshone that of Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Eury, and Waltrip and Scott Eggleston, even though they also have had their shining moments. Park has had two bad finishes, at Daytona and Atlanta, where he was the first car out after an engine failure.

Waltrip's best finish since his Daytona 500 win is 13th and he only has one other top-20 run. Junior's best run since he finished second to Waltrip came Sunday, when he appeared ready to win his second straight Texas race before a slow late pit stop dropped him to eighth.

"Out on the race track, they are just another competitor that we need to beat," Park said of his teammates, while acknowledging at Texas that he and Earnhardt Jr. cooperated on their pit sequences in order to better work together. "We're just trying to do what we set out to do at the beginning of the year, and that's to try to be competitive week-in and week-out, be consistent and try to win some races."

He's done that and has proved to be a man to be reckoned with everywhere he goes. Park's career-long, cool-hand demeanor places him in a position to contend for the championship, though he'll have to deal with Jarrett, the 1999 series champion, and three-time titlist Jeff Gordon, who is currently second.

"The back of that 88 car is getting familiar-looking and I'm not liking it," Park said of the driver who beat him in similar circumstances at Darlington this season. "The competitive side of me is not happy with finishing second but compared to where we were a year ago, and considering where we are in points, we're pretty happy."

Maybe one of the biggest adjustments Park has made in what is shaping up as a breakout season is his and Andrews' successful adaptation to a new-generation Goodyear tire. Team owner Jack Roush on Sunday indicated discomfort with the new tire combination has supposedly led to championship contender Jeff Burton's problems this season, as Burton has struggled to get into the top 35 in points.