Looking back, Park sets sights on future

LOUDON, N.H. -- Steve Park has confirmed he's in serious negotiations again, for his future with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. But even as he looked ahead, Park couldn't help but fondly look back last weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway.

	Steve Park

At NHIS, a track on which he won four Featherlite Modified races and a Busch North race before he moved to the NASCAR Busch Series in 1997, Park was like Dave Marcis in an all-you-can-eat restaurant Saturday, when the Modifieds and Busch North cars shared the track with two Cup practices.

"Back then, life WAS simple," Park said, chuckling. "Even though we'd run Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night -- 50 lappers, 150 lappers -- and after it was all done we'd just go home.

"It's one of those things. I kind of miss the old short track days but what we're doing now is important. Running 38 races is kind of hard, but we have a big challenge ahead of us and I enjoy it.

"I enjoy racing and I think when you win in Winston Cup that's the pinnacle, right there."

His success in NASCAR's Touring Division led to him being noticed by DEI's founder, seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt. But even after moving to Winston Cup and winning a pair of races, Park still maintained a firm grip on his roots.

But while running a NASCAR Busch Series race at Darlington Raceway on Labor Day weekend in 2001, he suffered a severe head injury in a freak accident under caution. Since then he's struggled to return to his prior level of performance.

In 15 races since he returned, Bud Pole Qualifying has been little problem as he's started in the top 11 five times and only has one provisional start. His races have been dogged by bad luck and bad timing, with a best finish of 20th in the same stretch.

Park spent Saturday morning's rain postponed Modified race atop his Pennzoil transporter between Turns 3 and 4 of the 1.058-mile oval, intently watching with another Modified refugee, Tommy Baldwin, crew chief for Ward Burton.

Afterward, Park said he'd had a change of heart in terms of his Winston Cup future. A stubborn tenacity has marked Park's meteoric rise to the Winston Cup Series, which had a relatively slow start but burst to fruition when he won the Busch Series Rookie of the Year Award.

	Steve Park sits in his office. Credit: Autostock

He said that his attitude had softened somewhat in terms of his short-term future.

"We're talking," he said. "At least the discussion is open. Before, it was one of those deals where you didn't know where things were going. Ty (Norris, DEI executive vice president) and I have been talking and we're trying to work on an extension of at least one year.

"First, I wasn't really for that -- you know, just being stubborn. I was thinking that the same time next year I would be in the same boat.

"But you can look at it the other way, too. This year we feel the team is turning around. It wouldn't surprise me if we won this year, run great next year and then we'll be talking about the next two or three years.

"It's just one of those things where I seem to have black-and-yellow running through my veins so I wanted to work hard to stay in this Pennzoil car. We should have things hashed out in the next couple weeks."

So now he negotiates and ponders what's next, while doing the best he can in the No. 1 car he fully expects to remain his own. But Saturday he knew he hadn't forgotten the pure thrill of pushing the button in a brutish 750-horsepower Modified.

"But I think you always have to be careful for what you wish for -- you just might get it, you know?" Park said, rhetorically. "I used to run all the races here -- it's pretty settled down to just be running one. I used to run the Modified, the truck race, Busch North (so it's a big change) to just be running the Cup car."