 | | Steve Park is trying to stay focused on both the Busch and Truck opportunities. Credit: Autostock |
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
May 12, 2006
01:32 PM EDT (17:32 GMT)
DARLINGTON, S.C. -- It is with great irony that Steve Park's hauler is parked just 100 yards away from the accident that nearly killed him here almost five years ago. Park was 34 when he was hit in the driver's side door during a caution lap at Darlington Raceway in 2001. The crash caused head injuries that kept him out of the sport until the following spring, and Park's once-promising career never really recovered.  |  | | Steve Park returned after his Darlington accident to drive for DEI and for Richard Childress in 2002 and 2003. Credit: Autostock |
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| Inside the Numbers |
| Steve Park's Cup statistics |
| Year |
Starts |
W |
T5 |
T10 |
Rank |
| 1997 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
51 |
| 1998 |
17 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
41 |
| 1999 |
34 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
14 |
| 2000 |
34 |
1 |
6 |
13 |
11 |
| 2001 |
24 |
1 |
5 |
12 |
32 |
| 2002 |
32 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
33 |
| 2003 |
35 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
32 |
| Totals |
181 |
2 |
12 |
35 |
|
|
|
That hasn't stopped him from trying to resurrect that career via one of the hardest roads in NASCAR. Park is currently running a combined Busch and Craftsman Truck Series schedule with a pair of teams that operate on a budget that pales in comparison to what is found among the sport's elite teams. "You come to the tracks with 15 Cup guys in it -- and it's not so much drivers, but teams -- they get 15 million in the Cup side and they take that technology to the Busch Series," Park said. This weekend at Darlington, Park is in the No. 31 Chevrolet of Ted Marsh -- the same team and the same car he was driving when he was hurt here in 2001. "I don't hold anything against the track or the cars or anything," Park said. "It was just a circumstance that we tried to avoid. It happened under caution. It is behind us now." Park knows that the car doesn't have much of a chance against the well-funded Busch teams with Nextel Cup affiliations, but that is hardly why he is choosing to buckle himself in. He finds it too tough to merely sit at home and wait for something to happen. "It is a tough sport that we are involved in," said Park, who turns 39 in August. "It's, 'What have you done for me for me lately?'" Park won a Craftsman Truck Series event at Fontana last year while driving for Orleans Racing, but he lost his job in the fall when financial woes cut his tenure short. The win gave Park a much-needed boost in visibility, but it didn't lead him back to the Nextel Cup Series, where he last raced in 2003. "Until you win, you are labeled as the guy who got hurt," Park said. "Winning in the Truck Series out in California kind of lifted all the pressure off me." Park isn't experiencing much pressure this season in his Busch and Truck jobs. This year, he has been driving Jim Harris' No. 59 truck while moonlighting with Marsh's Busch program, and neither team has the resources to compete with the juggernauts that dominate at those levels. "[Harris has] a team I can feel can grow into a team that can win week in and week out," Park said. "Their [truck] gives me the opportunity to get back in the Busch Series, too. "You hate the fact that you are bouncing back and forth between Busch and Trucks, trying to settle into a ride. I am confident in a short amount of that something is going to come up and I can get back to running full time in Trucks or Busch." While Park has found sporadic work, the same can't be said for Ricky Craven, whose Nextel Cup career can be compared to Park's. Both men won two Nextel Cup races; devastating head injuries sidelined both for long periods of time; both eventually went to the Craftsman Truck Series, where each won in 2005 for the first time. Craven lost his ride with Roush Racing last fall and has not yet returned in 2006. "I think me and Ricky are both picky," Park said. "We are not just jumping at opportunities and getting in stuff that we feel will run in the back. We want to be in stuff that we know can win races." | 
