Park leads way for DEI at Talladega qualfying

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- The last time Steve Park posted Dale Earnhardt Inc's fastest qualifying time at Talladega Superspeedway the organization was a single-car team.

	Steve Park

That all changed Friday, as Park placed the Pennzoil Chevrolet 12th on the grid for Sunday's Aaron's 499 at NASCAR's largest track, one position better than Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and four positions better than Michael Waltrip.

"I'm happy with that," Park said. "It went 51.90 in practice and we thought we could run a 51.70 with all of the qualifying stuff, and we did. The only scary moment was our teammates went out and ran 51.80 when they ran 51.40s and 51.50s in practice.

"They slowed down, so we were kind of afraid the track might slow down a little bit, but it didn't for us. We're on schedule -- we thought we'd run a 51.70 and we did, so we're happy about that. It feels good."

It has to. Friday's effort was Park's best of the year, and marked the third time he has qualified among the top-15. Aside from that, he has qualified outside the top 30 four times.

"We've struggled in qualifying all year long, so to come here and qualify somewhere near the top-10 is a credit to this whole Pennzoil team," Park said.