NASCAR WCUP: Steve Park Qualifying Notes, Bristol
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
March 24, 2001Steve Park, No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet Monte Carlo (qualified 17th): "We're working on the car to try to get it where it needs to be. Bristol's a tough place. It's a place where you need to be on your toes. It's like flying a jet fighter in a gymnasium. You haul butt around here in a short amount of time, so you've got to be on your toes. But it's one of the best places that we go to. I love racing here and I know the race fans love when we come here to race."
(About hitting the wall during practice): "It surprised us. It caught me by surprise. It's not something you set out to do. We're on the edge of competition here and to go around Bristol here in just a sub-15-second lap, you're wide open. It doesn't leave much room for error. Somebody could have leaked a little water or a little bit of oil and we might have got into something."
(About racing in Bristol): "It's just getting back to the grass roots of racing. The half-mile short track is where this sport started. And that's why I think we put on such a great show here at Bristol. It's a bunch of good racecar drivers and good racecars on a short race track putting on a great show for a tremendous amount of race fans. How many people in this place? One hundred sixty, a hundred-seventy thousand people? It's just incredible. And I know it makes the hair stand up on my arms on Sunday afternoon when we come out here and they say, 'Gentlemen, start your engines ', and the crowd goes crazy. It's probably one of the best places to go racing."
(Do you have to make any repairs to the rear deck of the car?) "We can define duck-tape. That's tape used to repair a car after an altercation on the racetrack. And we've got plenty of yellow duck-tape for the Pennzoil car."
Text provided by Nancy Wager
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