Daytona 500 Preview: Steve Park # 1 Monte Carlo
9 February 1998
Park Tops Rookies in Daytona Qualifying #1 Pennzoil Monte Carlo driver Steve Park endured his first qualifying day at Daytona on Saturday and posted a 188.988 mph lap - the 24th quickest and best of any rookie. The New York native struggled at Daytona on Thursday, but his Dale Earnhardt Inc. team worked on the chassis and bolted a Richard Childress engine in the car on Friday and Saturday to improve lap times. Park and crew must decide now whether to requalify Monday or Tuesday, or lineup 12th in the seconed qualifying race. Park must finish in the top 15 positions of that race to transfer into the Daytona 500. Other rookie qualifiers included Jerry Nadeau 32nd and Kenny Irwin 36th Qualifying Lap: "Our qualifying lap was OK. We thought we would be a bit faster, but we'll take it. That was my first time qualifying a Winston Cup car at Daytona and I was nervous especially when the first car went out. Thankfully, we went out fourth, so the nervousness didn't last too long." Qualifying Race Preparation: "If we don't reqaulify then we will start drafting and that is more fun than running by yourself as we do in qualifying simulations. Drafting practice can be pretty tense. We will get a lot of cars out there together and everyone has to pay attention. I think our car will draft a lot better than it runs by itself, which means we could have something for them on Thursday. Plans to Talk With Earnhardt About Drafting: "Heck yes, I'm going to talk to Dale about drafting. I'd be stupid not to. He's got more knowledge than anyone has about this place, so anything he tells me I'm going to listen. He told me before the qualifying run to keep it straight and don't wiggle. I tried to do that, but not as well as he did because he got an awesome run in. Right now we are in the same qualifying race and I'm really looking forward to that." First Week in Daytona: "It's been an experience here this week. We were pretty bad in practice and just kept improving and improving. The longer we have been here the better we get and that's something to be thankful for. We borrowed an engine from Richard Childress and that helped us some. We are going to keep working this week. Thursday is going to be fun." Contact: Drew Brown, Pennzoil Racing (704) 895-3651 or drewbrown@pennzoil.com