NASCAR WCUP: Steve Park Interview: Pleased with outcome in New Hampshire

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

July 23, 2001

Steve Park, No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 6th): "I'm pleased. We've had five really bad weeks that we've struggled. To come close to getting another top five is a good sign that we're back. We ran good the first part of the year. They took the bump-rubbers away and that threw us a curve ball. We've been able to go back and test and try to get back on track. We qualified fifth and finished sixth and I consider that being back on track.

"This was our best finish here. It makes me feel real good. We've won a lot of races here (in other series), we just haven't been able to be competitive in Winston Cup. To come back and qualify good and finish good - I just feel great about it."

(How was the track?) "We didn't have any grip on the outside. We were hoping the sealer would give us an opportunity to have some grip on the outside, but it just didn't. The extra groove never happened. We really thought it would. The sealer kind of got wore off and deposited to the outside grooves so you couldn't run out there without getting marbles all over your tires. I think if we could have kept the outside groove clean, there's definitely plenty of grip out there."

(Did you see what happened with Jerry Nadeau and Jimmy Spencer?) "What can you say? Coming into the closing laps it looked like Jerry was trying to block the position and Spencer wanted it. So, he took it."

Text provided by Nancy Wager

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