Wallace: Park could return in March

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Steve Park could return to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series in the next few weeks, teammate Kenny Wallace said Saturday morning at North Carolina Speedway.

Park, 34, has been absent from NASCAR competition since being injured last September in a freak caution-lap accident at Darlington Raceway. Park, cruising along during a mid-race caution lap, suddenly and unexpectedly swerved to the left and down the track, where a hard-charging Larry Foyt hit him square in the driver's-side door.

“Steve should be back real soon, within the next two or three weeks I presume,” said Wallace, who has substituted for Park in the No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet since the Sept. 1, 2001 accident. “It’s still up to him.”

			Kenny Wallace

The decision on when to return to the track has been arduous for Park, and everyone at Dale Earnhardt Inc. for that matter. The urge to return does not easily subside, but Park has been careful to assure that he is in tip-top condition before he returns. He has tested his equilibrium in a Legends Series car. Then, last Thursday, he returned to the No. 1 Chevy at Charlotte.

“All of us -- Dale Jr., Michael Waltrip, Ty Norris, Dr. (Jerry) Petty, and NASCAR -- were there to observe this so we won't have another Ernie Irvan deal where Steve comes back too soon,” Wallace said. “We were in total shock. As a matter of fact, it was dead silence. Steve jumped in that car and it was amazing.”

Was it the old Steve Park, the one who won this very race last season?

“He was flying. There were times where all three of us couldn't catch him,” Wallace said. “We had two Pennzoil cars there and NASCAR approved a three-to-four-hour test for Steve. We weren't allowed to adjust on the car because it was not an official test.”

While fast, Park still had a bit of trouble adjusting his vision.

“When Steve would get out of the car he said that he was still squinting just to see a little bit further down the straightaway but it keeps getting better the more (he drives) the car,” Wallace said. “I told him he should just drive this weekend at Rockingham. I don't know if it's his stamina or what, but he elected not to run. He wants to be right when he comes back.”

More testing has been scheduled in the near future. The DEI teams will once again suit up on Monday and Tuesday next week for another trial run. Then it’s on to Darlington.

“There is a process in place for his return - number one just got completed,” Wallace said. “Number two is that we're testing in Atlanta Monday and Tuesday.

"That's a full-blown test for me and it's been approved that he can get in the car a couple of times. Then he's got to go to a two-day test at Darlington. So this isn't a deal where he says, 'Hey, I think I'm ready to go.' Nobody wants him to come back too early.”