NASCAR BGN: Park - Whelen Team Hope Winning Is Contagious
20 September 2000
Park - Whelen Team Hope Winning Is Contagious Marsh Racing Won North Races At Loudon, Watkins Glen With Santerre It's been a good season for Whelen Engineering and Ted Marsh Racing. The Connecticut-based team and sponsor visited victory lane with Andy Santerre at Watkins Glen in August then again last weekend at Loudon, N.H. in Busch North competition. And, they have come close to winning Busch South races with Steve Park at Loudon and Richmond. One of their most frustrating moments of the year came in June at Dover when a crash early in practice ended hopes of qualifying at the Monster Mile. But this weekend Park's #31 Whelen Monte Carlo crew hopes it will garner a measure of revenge on the concrete high banks. Park plans to not only qualify, but return to running up front as he did earlier in the year. Park earned his first Winston Cup victory at Watkins Glen in August. Is Winning Contagious? "I sure hope so. I know those guys were thrilled to win the Watkins Glen and Loudon North races and I can tell you I still haven't come down off the high of winning at Watkins Glen in the Cup car. I think it would be cool to win at Dover and not just because we struggled there last time. That way I would have won a Cup and Busch race and the Whelen guys would have won in the North Series. If that happens then we might want to start thinking about maybe getting in a truck and a modified and seeing if we can make a clean sweep of the NASCAR touring Series. Nobody has ever done that." Park On Marsh Racing "These guys are proven winners. People might not know as much about the Busch North Series, but that is a pretty tough series. It's not as tough as the Busch South Series, but you have to be pretty sharp to win up there. In the South Series, they have to work a little extra harder than everyone else for two reasons. First, having a shop up in Connecticut means you have to plan a little more and just generally put in extra effort because sometimes you can't get all the stuff you need as quick as you need it like you do in the Charlotte area. "Secondly, because they are a part-time Busch South team they don't get to keep up with what is going on at the track like the regulars. They don't have the luxury of being a little off and knowing how to cure the problem immediately. They can't say 'hey lets do what we did at that track' to fix what is happening now. Those are disadvantages but they have been able to overcome them. They are a pretty smart bunch of guys and hard workers. My cars at Richmond and Loudon were as good as any other on the track." Dover This Weekend "Yeah, we kind of owe that place. I think the car was pretty fast there last time. But something happened and we tore it up pretty good. I think things will be different this weekend. I've been saying this for a couple of weeks now, the key for part-time teams in the Busch Series is just getting qualified. If we can get qualified I have no doubt we will race well." ESPN will televise Saturday's race at 3:30 p.m.