Park released, still resting at home
By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
September 4, 2001
7:16 PM EDT (2316 GMT)
MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- NASCAR Winston Cup driver Steve Park, who was hospitalized for two days following an accident in Saturday’s Busch Series South Carolina 200 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, continued to show improvement from his injuries Tuesday as he rested at home.
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Steve Park
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However, his Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Winston Cup team is taking a wait-and-see attitude in terms of making a decision on whether Park or Kenny Wallace will drive the No. 1 Chevrolet in Saturday night’s Monte Carlo 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.
"We're just taking it a day at a time," Park's crew chief Paul Andrews said Tuesday night on MRN Radio's NASCAR Live. "The folks down in Darlington did a good job for (Park), but getting him back home where the local doctors are familiar with racecar drivers' injuries was key.
"Kenny Wallace is on call, if you will, to drive the car this weekend if we need him."
Park, 34, suffered what has been called a moderate concussion when he was knocked unconscious in a T-bone impact on his No. 31 Chevrolet by driver Larry Foyt’s similar car.
The accident occurred under caution when an apparent mechanical failure caused Park’s car to take a sharp left, directly into the path of Foyt’s No. 14 car that was accelerating up the inside of the 1.366-mile oval to take its place for a restart.
Foyt estimated he was traveling more than 100 mph in third gear when he struck Park’s car behind the driver’s door. Foyt said the impact was the “worst in my career.”
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Park's Busch Series car was totaled after the accident.
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Park has not yet commented on the accident.
Wallace, who drove Park’s car Saturday in the final Happy Hour practice and in Sunday’s Mountain Dew Southern 500, has been told by DEI he will drove the No. 1 until Park is able to return.
Wallace said Sunday Park had also suffered various strains, including to his neck muscles, in relation to the side impact that might prevent him from driving this weekend. Park was released from Carolinas Hospital System in Florence, S.C., Monday afternoon.
A team spokesperson Tuesday evening said at this time Park was simply resting to recover from what had been a tiring ordeal. He is not yet doing any physical therapy, she said, but is “getting better by the day” and that the team would “play it by ear and make a decision together” on when Park would return.
Even after missing Sunday’s 25th race of the 36-race season, Park remained 11th in the Winston Cup standings, losing only one position. He is 105 points behind 10th-place Johnny Benson and 17 points ahead of 12th-place Mark Martin.
A NASCAR spokesman said Park’s car Tuesday remained at NASCAR’s research and development facility near Hickory, N.C., where it is being analyzed to determine what caused it to veer in front of Foyt’s car.
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