NASCAR BGN: Park Shows Why New Hampshire Is Home Sweet Home
14 May 2000
There are many reasons why #31 Whelen Monte Carlo driver Steve Park enjoys coming to New Hampshire International Speedway. Sure he considers NHIS his home track and he is the only driver to drive in all five NASCAR touring series there. Of course it helps that there are more Steve Park fans at NHIS than any other NASCAR track and his media requests are much more demanding. But first and foremost, the reason Park likes NHIS is because he is very adept at getting around the flat 1.058-mile oval. That showed Saturday in NASCAR Busch Series race in which Park appeared headed for victory before a red flag and a tangle with Casey Atwood in the final two laps dropped the E. Northport New York native out of contention for the victory. "I thought we were going to win today," said Park seconds after climbing out of the Whelen Chevrolet. "I don't know why they decided the throw the red flag and then Casey couldn't have run me up the track any more than he did there at the end. I'm disappointed. But I guess anything goes in the final laps." Park qualified 21st on Friday and hung around that spot most of the race on Saturday. But some nifty pit strategy by Crew Chief Ted Marsh and Steve Hibbard called for Park to pit early in the race. That allowed Park to stay on the track late in the race when all of the leaders were pitting. In the final 50 laps the race boiled down to whether Buckshot Jones had enough fuel to stay in first place and whether Jeff Green had enough time to use his new tires to catch Park and Jones. Park knew he could make it to the checkered flag. "We weren't that concerned about fuel," Park said. "So we were just concentrating on getting by Casey and staying ahead of Jeff Green. Just as planned, Jones ran out of fuel and Park passed Atwood to take over the lead. But with eight laps left in the race several cars crashed in Turn 2. Debris from the cars of Ted Christopher, Jay Sauter, Dick Trickle and Jason Schuler brought out the red flag with 193 of 200 laps completed. "That killed us," said Park. "Obviously, If we had stayed under yellow we would have won the race and I think if we had restarted with just one or two laps left we were going to hang on but you never know." The race restarted and Atwood charged under Park for the lead on lap 198, but got sideways coming off the fourth corner. Park skated up the track, allowing Tim Fedewa to drive past both and claim the victory. Park narrowly avoided wrecking and ended up finishing 10th. "We ran well today and were there at the end battling for the victory. Next time we are going to be the one pushing people out of the way to win. We were better than tenth today but if you don't win there isn't much difference between tenth and second." Park and his Ted Marsh Racing teammates return to action at Dover on June 3. The race was held just a day after Adam Petty was fatally injured in a practice crash. "It makes all this seem so unimportant," said Park. "But, we had a job to do today and we did it. It wasn't easy."