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October 29, 2005
Steve Park Involved in Scary Wreck at Atlanta
Coincidentally when I was in T.J. Maxx shopping this afternoon, I suddenly felt a huge sense of dread in relation to this race. So bad that I wanted to rush home and make sure that nothing bad had happened at the track today. But I never in my wildest dreams expected things to turn out the way that they did for Steve Park. After qualifying ninth for this afternoon's truck race at Atlanta in the #67 South Padre Island Toyota Tundra for Bill Davis Racing Steve must have had extremely high hopes for how he might finish today. If I had been him I would have had dreams of being in Victory Lane dancing through my head. Unfortunately those hopes were dashed on lap one in a very frightening way. I'm extremely glad that I was still in the car listening to the race on XM rather than watching it on TV because I probably would have passed out if I saw it live. To say that I'm astonished and heart-broken at the way things turned out for Steve is an extreme understatement. He was so happy and excited about the opportunity that Bill Davis had given him and to have this race end so quickly and violently had to have been an awful feeling.
Drivers say they don't get scared on the track but that kind of a extremely hard wreck which results in a fire has to create a few anxious moments. If not for Steve than certainly for his girlfriend and other friends and family at the track who at first have no idea if Steve has been injured or not. As fans of Steve we also worry until we know he's okay but those who know him well had to be even more terrified at first. When I watched the recording of the race later on, the first thought of Michael Waltrip, who was in the Speed booth, was whether Steve was okay - luckily there was footage of Steve scrambling out of his truck under his own power after the wreck but how would Michael have continued to do the broadcast if he didn't know for sure if his good friend was okay or not? How scary did it have to be for Steve's girlfriend until she got to the in-field care center and saw for herself that Steve was okay? We take for granted that the drivers will be fine after wrecks because there have been so many safety advances the past few years and we have gotten used to drivers climbing out of their cars and trucks after huge wrecks. But as Steve knows full well, not every wreck ends with the driver walking away uninjured.
Many fans are angry at Tim Fedewa and think that he has no place on the track. I'm no fan of Fedewa myself but I doubt that he intended on causing a bad wreck which red-flagged the race on lap one. No driver goes out there intending on wrecking another driver unless they are looking to retaliate for some past injustice and that's certainly not the case here. Circumstances just came together in way that resulted in a horrific wreck that luckily none of the drivers involved were injured in. I'm just as upset as anyone else that the day ended so quickly for Steve but I find it difficult to hate Fedewa for what happened. Every driver makes mistakes that leads to wrecks, sometimes bad ones. Yes, there are some drivers who seem to be involved in more incidents than others but there isn't a single driver out there that hasn't unintentionally caused a wreck at one time or another. Everything unfolds so quickly that sometimes things just come together in a way that spells unavoidable disaster. What I feel is extreme disappointment that Steve had such an awesome truck and was unable to show what he could do with it and extreme relief that he walked away from a wreck that he could have been injured in.
Brendan Gaughan finished 15th and Scott Lynch finished 25th, not exactly an impressive day for Orleans Racing. Even though the race ended prematurely for Steve, it was very obvious that the #67 was a much better truck all weekend than the #62 or the #77 for that matter. That really speaks volumes about Orleans Racing that Steve got a stronger truck from Bill Davis Racing for this one race than he would have gotten from the organization he raced for all season. The deal to run the truck came together at the last minute, it was the fourth truck BDR was running in the race and the crew was made up of a mix of personal friends of Steve's and some of Michael Waltrip's Busch crew so one might not expect the truck to be very competitive. But he was fast in practice, qualified extremely well and probably would have finished well had he not been wrecked on the first lap. Imagine if Steve had found victory lane in his first race for BDR? I'd say he would have a ride with Toyota in the bag! But a celebration in victory lane was not to be thanks to the lap one wreck.
That's what gets me the most - lap one! He was wrecked on lap one! It's never good when a driver wrecks but when it's just after the race starts it's even worse. Steve has to have the worst luck of any driver not named Michael Waltrip. Seriously, how many times has Steve been optimistic about a race or had a good run going only to see it, sometimes literally, go up in smoke? How does a driver keep their spirits high when they have to deal with so many problems? How do they enjoy themselves at the track when they have to feel like someting bad might and usually does happen at any time? And all of it out of his hands - he can't control what Jack Sprague or Tim Fedewa does, he can't stop himself from skidding across the track, he can't prevent Mike Bliss or Eric Norris from hitting him. By the time Steve realized that Fedewa was coming down on him was probably about the same time he started spinning and careening across the track. All that hard work by so many people to get that truck on the track, all for nothing.
One driver who was taking some flack over at SPC for reasons I can't quite understand was Eric Norris. Yes, he slammed into Steve and Mike as they were wrecking but it seemed to me that he was an innocent victim who had no place to go. Norris was used as an example of why the truck series is bad because there are so many inexperienced drivers like Norris who have no business being in one of the highest levels in Nascar. The only thing is that Norris isn't that inexperienced. He's been racing in the truck series since 1997 and has made 17 starts. That's not a lot but he has definitely been in a truck before. Not only that but he's had a few top fifteen finishes, including a 12th place finish earlier this season in Texas. That's not bad for a driver who races so sporatically. In addition, drivers have to get experience somewhere and I'd rather see them race in the trucks for a while than get thrown into Busch or Cup before they're truly ready. I think a lot of young drivers are getting rushed up these days but I'd rather see them spend some time in the truck series like Todd Kluever. Beyond all of that it's not only the inexperienced drivers who cause wrecks - there are countless wrecks on every level that are caused by veterans. Anyone can make a mistake no matter their level of experience on the track. But unless I missed something I don't think Norris is at all at fault for the wreck today.
Next week Steve races at Texas and I hope that things turn out much better for him. Not only will he presumably be racing in front of people representing his sponsor but he'll also be trying to impress owners who might give him a ride for 2006. I hope that he can put some of that out of his mind and just go out and have some fun. If the truck that he had today is any indication next week's race could be a lot of fun indeed because Steve could very well spend much of the race up front if he's not wrecked like he was this week.
Posted by silverdsl at October 29, 2005 09:51 PM