As a Winston warm-up, Park to test at Kentucky

Even though he's only driven for one NASCAR Winston Cup team in the last seven years, Steve Park's career has had several chapters.

	Steve Park

Park opens a whole new book Wednesday at Kentucky Speedway when he stages his initial test with Richard Childress Racing, his new crew and crew chief Mike Beam.

In effect, Park and former RCR driver Jeff Green switched rides when each was fired on May 5: Park from the No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet at DEI and Green from the No. 30 AOL car.

RCR team manager Bobby Hutchens wasted no time in getting Beam and Park on-track as they head toward their competitive debut in Friday's qualifying for the Winston Open at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

	Mike Beam

"We're going to test a brand-new car they just built," Park said last week. "I spent quite a bit of time up at the RCR shop this week getting seats put in for Charlotte and into the car we're taking to Kentucky to test, so we're not skipping a beat."

Park just laughs when he talks about his initial struggle to learn the names of all his new crewmen.

"We've already had some fun and had a few laughs getting the seats in the cars," Park said. "I'm just trying to get to know as many people as I can as quickly as I can because this all happened so quick, and in the middle of the season besides.

"I'm just trying to get as comfortable as I can so that when we get to the race track we can just concentrate on the race cars. These guys are really motivated."

Park said that getting to work with Beam, a classic old-school crew chief, might provide a spark for his career as well.

No Second Chance  Steve Park has hoped to continue driving in the Busch Series for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Chance 2 Motorsports, but it won't happen.

"We're getting the formalities out of the way -- it's business as usual," Park said. "I've spent a lot of time with Mike already trying to bridge that gap we have of not ever working together.

"We've spent a lot of time together just talking about race cars, talking about shocks -- and getting to know one another."

A good part of Beam's legacy was earned at Petty Enterprises, and he won races with Bill Elliott.

"I think the transition is going to be pretty smooth," Park said. "As I said, I've spent a lot of time with Mike and it feels pretty good to hear him talk about his race cars and the types of set-ups that he runs.

"It's almost refreshing to get back to stuff that's more normal and more of what I'm used to running in the past and knowing we're still moving forward. Chevrolet came out with a new (2003) race car and I think everybody is just starting to get it figured out."

So far this season, Chevrolet has won five races to the Ford's four. Dodge and Pontiac have a single victory apiece.