Conversation: Steve Park

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- By mid-summer 2001, Steve Park had solidified his rank among the Winston Cup elite. He'd won two races in the past year and was a contender at virtually every stop on the lengthy Winston Cup tour.

	Steve Park Credit: Autostock

He was climbing NASCAR's most sought-after list as quickly as anyone -- including teammate Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

But then, on Sept. 2, 2001, Park was cruising along under caution during the NASCAR Busch Series event at Darlington Raceway when he inexplicably shot down the track and into the path of Larry Foyt's speeding Chevrolet. Foyt T-boned Park's Chevrolet, resulting in a severe concussion and inhibited eyesight that plagued Park for months.

After a year of arduous rehabilitation, he made a return to competition amid questions about his ability - questions he faces to this day.

Friday afternoon, just before qualifying at North Carolina Speedway, Park sat down to discuss the doubters, his frenzied female fan base and the stupid jokes that coincide with being a race driver named Park.

I get more emails from Steve Park fans than any other driver. They're nuts over you, man. Do you understand how huge your fan base is?

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Yeah, I really do. I just love the fact that I have so many great, great race fans. We've been through a lot as a driver and as a team, and as fans are involved over the last year. To have their kind of support during the tough times is what really makes a race fan, you know.

They seem to stick by you in the good times -- in Victory Lane -- and also in the bad times when you're negotiating contracts and stuff like that, or being hurt. That makes you feel good that you have that kind of support.

It's not just fair-weather fans. They're real race fans that really care about what you do not only on the racetrack, but away from the racetrack, too.

It seems like 99 percent of your fans are women. I bet you have some good stories for me.

Aw man, I tell you (laughing). It's that one percent of guys that I feel sorry for, because they're great race fans but they're constantly inundated by the women part of it.

In this sport, if you look at the demographics, I think it's like 50-50 (men to women). It's a lot of women that are involved in NASCAR auto racing. So, that's good for the sport. I guess it doesn't hurt my feelings that a lot of the race fans we have are women. But no good stories to talk about (laughing).

You're certainly one of the most eligible bachelors out there in NASCAR racing. You ever think about getting married?

That's probably why I have a large fan base of women (laughing). I don't have a time schedule to get married, but I would like to get married at some point.

Again, it would probably take the right woman, because the life that we lead - travelling so much -- you'd almost need a person that can kind of handle the notoriety of driving Winston Cup cars and all the travel that's involved in it.

It'd be more of a partnership. So it'd definitely take the right person. I just haven't met that person just yet, you know. I've just been concentrating on my career. But now that I'm getting older, it's time to settle down and look towards the future, so I'm sure there will be a Mrs. Park on the horizon.

Man, there's some happy ladies out there right now.

Let's talk a bit about your accident. What do you remember about that particular day?

What I remember about the day is quite a bit, believe it or not. I know we were kind of disappointed because the rain came and the race was delayed because of the rain. Tried to go back to green and that's when I got hurt.

So I remember right up to the point of the accident, and then I woke up in the hospital. So there's a 10 -to -15-minute delay where I was knocked out and that I don't remember. But from that point on, fortunately, I have no memory loss. I remember my childhood, remember all my friends and stuff. So that's good.

There's no long-term memory loss, no short-term memory loss. I just lost a little segment of time between getting hurt and being cared for by doctors. You know, you look at a racetrack like Darlington -- I love going there to race. I don't want to have any kind of bad taste in my mouth to go there, thinking well, this is the place I got hurt at.

It's just unfortunate it happened, but I'm not going to let that take away from the fact that I love to go there and love to race. In my future I plan on winning a race there, so I'm looking forward to that. You got from tragedy to triumph all at the same place. I think it'll make that win that much more sweet.

Was there ever a point where you feared a comeback wasn't possible?

	Steve Park was unhurt in this lap-1 crash at Pocono in July.

I just thought, with my eyesight being off -- first of all, I never had had any problems with my eyesight, so that was the first time where my vision was real good, but half of it was double. I guess I went to every doctor, not only on the East Coast, but on the West Coast, just to find out what was going on.

They all said that they've seen it before and it's just a matter of time and it'll be fine. It's just so hard to believe, because it being your first time with your eyesight being put in jeopardy, you know you can't race these Cup cars when your eyesight's not 100 percent.

So having it off for the first time in your life, I wanted to make sure that, in time, it did come back, or if there was something I should do or shouldn't do to help it our hurt it. All the doctors said it was just a matter of time. And they were right, so it was good.

How frustrating was it that there was no timetable for recovery? It wasn't like a broken leg, where a doctor can say 'It'll heal in such and such time and you'll be ready.'

Yep, that's the hardest part. If you break a bone it'll take three months to heal, or six months. When you have a concussion, they can only go on what they've seen in the past. They say, 'Well, from what we've seen it'll take six months.' But it might take 10 months.

	Credit: Autostock

They're not really sure how it's going to affect your recovery, if it's going to be a month shorter, a month longer, two months, three months. So that's the hardest part. They can just put their finger on when you're going to be better. The main thing was, when you first get hurt, they look and say it's going to be six months.

So when six months go by and your recovery is just moving along so fast that, since it's happening to you, you can't tell you're getting better until you go to the doctor and they say, 'Man, you were here, now you're way over here. You're so much better.' The point is, you don't realize how much you're progressed because you see it every day.

So a doctor sees you every two or three months, and it lifts your spirits because they say, 'You tested here two months ago. Now you're way over here.' So you can say, 'OK, I'm feeling better, I'm testing better, it's just a fact of healing up and getting back in a race car and getting back to the point where you can test.

And that's what we did. We didn't just jump back in the race car. We went and tested. You know, you talk to people who wonder, did they come back to early? We didn't come back too early because I started in a Legends car at Lowe's, then I tested at Carraway, then went to Charlotte and tested, then tested back at Darlington and with my teammates with other cars around.

We took our time to extensively make sure that I was good. Then when I felt good and my teammates felt that they had the confidence to race around me, then we decided we'd set a date to get back to racing again.

How has your life changed in the past year?

It's changed a lot. I think the Bible says, 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' I'm definitely a lot stronger person. I believe my faith in the good Lord has given me the strength to get to this point. I love auto racing. It's inspirational to people, but to yourself, you're just doing what you love to do.

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And in the process of doing that, being in the public eye and having it inspire people that have been through tragedies in their life, to look that what they're going through maybe is not so bad -- just look at what Steve Park went through. That makes me feel good. Again, it goes back to the race fans.

People pay close attention to what's going on and how you're hurt and how you make your comeback. And not only are you paying attention to yourself and wanting to get back in a race car again, but having it inspire people, I think, is a goal in life that everybody should achieve.

It's just one of those things where you might feel down in the dumps, and, man, you're not running good in a race car. Then, you get a letter from a race fan that says you inspired them because their sister or brother passed away and they thought they were at wit's end. And then they see what I've been through and the road I had to come back on to make my way back to Winston Cup, and it proves to them that, hey, I can go on, I can have the strength just like you do.

That's something, probably, in the fast-paced life we lead, that we don't pay attention to. But since the accident, now I really pay attention to that. So when it goes back to making yourself a better person -- I think from that point of getting hurt and making my comeback to now, has definitely made me a better person.

Does it upset you when people doubt your ability?

No, because I've been through so much. Like I said, I think it's made stronger, because people that doubt your ability are the ones on the outside looking in. That's the biggest thing -- you've got to look at where the comments come from.

If it was Jeff Gordon that was publicly saying he doubted your ability, then you'd be more concerned about it. But if it's the media or if it's a race fan or something, they don't know what you do on a racetrack and what you have done to come back. I think people have to realize -- we won races in the past and we're just getting back on track to win races again.

That's not only that I feel good enough to win races, but this poor race team has been through a crew chief change, personnel changes, it's been through a lot. We're just getting back on our feet to be put back in a position to win again.

That's going to be so much sweeter. You don't realize how high the highs are -- standing in Victory Lane -- until you've spent some time in the valley. Now, we've spent some time in the valley, so we're just starting to crawl our way back up -- and we're not going to stop until we're standing on top of the mountain with our hands held high.

You went through months of speculation as to whether or not you'd return to DEI. I bet you were stoked when you autographed that extension.

Oh yeah. That's another eye-opener thing, where your job's in jeopardy and getting that behind us just another step in showing that your team has the confidence in your ability to get the job done. And I have the confidence in the race team that we can win races.

Contracts are kind of a funny thing. Once you get that put behind you, it enables you to look forward and know what the next year for the team is going to be in store for. And that enables us to build personnel, build people, give them the confidence that we have the sponsor, we have the driver and we're just going to move forward and try to win races.

	Credit: Autostock

And again, coming back from an injury is hard enough, but then you have to negotiate your contract. So the last year, I've said it on TV, where I can't wait for this year to be over because we've just been through so much with making a comeback from an injury, negotiating contracts, losing your crew chief. Through all that, we've definitely gotten stronger as a team and we're going to overcome that. The only way we can overcome that is to start winning races.

Can Steve Park still win races?

Yeah. Again, I feel great. It's one of those things where not only do I feel like I can win races, I feel like this team can win races. We're going through some personnel changes right now, but again, we're working at getting back on top again.

And I think once we're in a position to win a race, we're going to capitalize on that and win. That'll be the closure for us. You talk about, from the time you get hurt until the time of what? Until the time you win again.

We won in the past, we've been hurt, made the recovery to get back in the race car again and we're not going to stop until we're in Victory Lane. That's the only time, as a team, we can get any closure to being hurt.

Have you watched the tape of your wreck at Pocono?

Yeah, unfortunately I did (laughing). You know, somebody said, I think a media person, when I came out of the hospital at Pocono, asked 'Man, was that the wildest roller-coaster ride or amusement ride you've ever been on?' And I said, 'I don't put amusement with that ride.'

Believe it or not, some good came out of that. You look at it as a tragic wreck, but I think it showed to everybody that Steve Park, if you touch him, he's not going to fall apart just because he was hurt. Unfortunately, we had to go through a violent wreck like that, but if you look at the positive that came out of it, I think it just showed that we're able to take a wreck.

You're not going to just breathe on me and I'm going to fall down, you know? It showed, again, I've worked so hard to get strong and come back to racing again. And that was just another step to show that we're ready to win a race. Not only can we withstand an accident like that, but we're strong enough on the reverse side, to win a race and get back in Victory Lane.

So if we've got to hold on for the last two laps, I can tell you one thing: it's going to be a heckuva lot easier than holding on for that ride at Pocono.

Ever heard any stupid jokes about being a racer with the last name Park?

Oh yeah, I've heard all of them (laughing). Man, we drive on parkways and park on driveways. What's funny about having a last name like Park are some of the T-shirts we came out with. Like at Darlington, when we made our comeback there, we had Darlington, instead of 'Too Tough to Tame,' we had 'Too Tough to Park.'

Coming back from injury, it just showed that I am too tough to park. And I'm too tough to park in the garage and park my butt outside a race car. Again, it's one of those things: we're not going to stop until we park in Victory Lane.