NASCAR BGN Detroit Gasket 200 Preview: #3, Steve Park
14 August 1997
#3 Steve Park, ACDelco Chevrolet Monte Carlo
NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division
Detroit Gasket 200 Advance
Michigan Speedway
PARK ENJOYS ADDING TO HIS COLLECTIONS
BROOKLYN, MI - NASCAR Busch Grand National rookie points leader Steve Park
has developed an appreciation for collectibles.
The 29-year-old driver from East Northport, N.Y. doesn't dabble with coins,
stamps or butterflies. Instead, he likes to collect top-five finishes in his
No. 3 ACDelco Monte Carlo owned by Teresa Earnhardt.
And in his spare time, which Park has learned can be a very precious
commodity, he collects Planet Hollywood caps. Park hasn't bothered to write
movie-stars-turned restaurant owners Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, Sylvester
Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger for the coveted caps. Instead, he acquiring
them on his own, with a little help from his friends.
"I'm starting a Planet Hollywood cap collection form every city we go to,"
Park said. "I've got about seven so far."
It would take 63 for a complete set, and many of the restaurants aren't in
the United States. That's OK. Park doesn't have a lot of time for
non-racing-related travel abroad right now, but he's willing to accept
assists.
"I've got a friend going to London, and he's going to get me one over there,"
Park said. "I tried to talk one out of a race fan an an autograph session the
other day.
"I was going to trade him Steve Park shirts, hats and autographs for his cap
from London Planet Hollywood, but he wouldn't budge. He didn't want to take
it off his head."
Although Park enjoys collecting the caps, he's more focused on acquiring
additional top-five Busch Series finishes. His next chance will come on
Saturday in the Detroit Gasket 200 at Michigan Speedway.
The series newcomer already has tied David Green's 1991 record of six
top-five finishes by a rookie in a season. With 10 races remaining on the '97
Busch schedule, Park and his ACDelco teammates should rewrite the Busch
Series record book.
Only 17 points out of third place in the overall Busch standings, Park is
running away with the rookie title. He has a victory and 11 other top-10
finishes in 20 starts. The ACDelco team tested recently at Michigan, but Park
admits he doesn't remember too much about it.
"I was sick as a dog," Park said. "I had a case of pneumonia. The day after
we got back from Michigan I went to the doctor. He put me in the hospital and
put me on intravenous antibiotics and fluids. He wanted to get it knocked out
of me before we got on the road again.
"You don't get enough sleep sometimes and you get yourself run down. You've
got to make sure you eat right and take good care of yourself so that kind of
stuff doesn't happen."
Park says he fit as a fiddle now and anxious to get back behind the wheel of
the No. 3 ACDelco Monte Carlo after an off week from Busch competition. He's
never competed at Michigan but likes the idea of racing tow or three-wide at
Roger Penske's two-mile oval in the Irish Hills of Michigan.
"We had a good test, but we weren't the fastest car," Park said. "All I
remember is just wanting to get out of that hot race car and go home and lay
down. Still, I think we learned enough at the test to go back and be pretty
competitive.
"We tested with two complete different types of race cars with Dale
(Earnhardt) Jr.'s and mine. We went back home and decided we needed to cut
the bodies completely off the cars and start from scratch. The guys at the
fab shop did a great job with that.
"It took them a little longer than they thought it would, but it's probably
one of the best bodies we've got in the shop right now. It's something
they've taken a lot of pride in.
"We took an educated guess. Of the two cars, we needed a little bit of each
car combined into one. We took one of the cars we tested with and cut it
apart and adjusted it to what we thought we needed. It's a combination of
speedway car and a short track car.
"We came up with an intermediate car to run because Michigan falls between a
speedway and an intermediate track. Michigan is like a small Talladega where
you just have to lift a little bit. You can almost run the place wide open."
If Park and company manage to run wide open all day, he could break the
top-five record and make up those 17 points needed to overtake Phil Parsons
for the No. 3 spot in the standings.
"It's been a short-term realistic goal (third place in Busch standings),"
Park said. "When we were about 140 points out of third, we felt if we could
keep up our consistency that we could catch third.
"Todd Bodine and Randy LaJoie have sort of run away from the rest of us. Our
next goal was to hunt down some points and get third and then go for second.
We're on target.
"We're no really point racing. We're just trying to be top-five racers and
knock off another win. We've been eating up the points trying to get in the
top-three. It's going to be tough to catch Bodine and LaJoie, but Bodine had
a little trouble at Indy. If we can get LaJoie to have a little bad luck and
not be so consistent, maybe we can gain some on him. Maybe we have all our
bad luck out of the way and we can have a good stretch run and give Bodine
and LaJoie a run for their money."
Park would also like to win a pole before the season ends, or perhaps even
before he turns the big Three Oh.
"I won 10 poles in 1995 and seven last year," Park said. "Now we can't seem
to get one, but I'd trade the poles in for top-five finishes.
"We've had a couple of opportunities to get poles. I think a lot of it is
concentrating on our race setup instead of our qualifying setup. Now that
we're getting consistent with our race setups and finishes, we're going to
work a little more on qualifying. Maybe we can get a pole before the season
ends.
"And yeah, I've got a birthday coming up at the end of the month (Aug. 23).
It's a big one. Thirty sounds old, and I'm feeling old, too, with all these
races we're running.
"I ran 104 races last year. We're up to 23 and I feel like I've run about 75
or 80. It goes back to traveling, not being at home, living in motels, living
out of a suitcase. If you add testing, it's a full-time deal.
"I used to work a full-time job and ran 104 races. I figured once I did this
full time that I'd have more free time. You could make a good living in the
Northeast racing in the summer, but had to do something to get through the
winter. That's why you had to have some type of employment.
"I figured I'd have a lot of extra time on my hands, but I get days off like
Tuesday and Wednesday. You don't get weekends off, but it's been great. I
love it. I love the sport. I think if I didn't love it like I do, it would
make it a lot harder, but I love seeing different parts of the country."
And collecting Planet Hollywood caps and top-five finishes on the Busch
circuit in the No. 3 ACDelco Chevy along the way.
By Champion Sports Group