Kenny Wallace to sub for Park at Richmond
By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
September 5, 2001
6:59 PM EDT (2259 GMT)
MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Dale Earnhardt, Inc. wasted no time making a decision on injured NASCAR Winston Cup driver Steve Park’s status for this weekend’s race at Richmond, Va.
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Kenny Wallace
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DEI on Wednesday announced veteran Kenny Wallace would drive Park’s No. 1 Chevrolet in Saturday night’s Chevy Monte Carlo 400 at the .750-mile Richmond International Raceway oval. It is the second straight race in which Wallace stands in for Park.
NASCAR Busch Series owner Ted Marsh has canceled his entry for Park in Friday night’s Autolite/Fram 250 at Richmond.
Wallace paused during a tour of the DEI shop complex Wednesday afternoon to express how he felt about his second opportunity in Park’s car, which came at about noon when the team decided Park needed more time to heal and called the 38-year-old St. Louis driver.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for me,” Wallace said. “I still need to make everyone understand in my own heart I feel this is all about Steve Park -- I feel bad about him being hurt. But for me to get in this car is the dream of my life, for sure.
“I’m ready, I’ve got the ability and we already proved at Darlington we can run up front.”
Wallace won Richmond Busch races three consecutive years from 1994-96 while driving for owner Filbert Martocci.
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Steve Park
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“Just being able to drive this car -- God, I can’t tell you how it makes me feel because there’s a lot of good drivers out there,” Wallace said. “My confidence is sky high (and) to go to Richmond is a bonus. Everybody knows how well Steve has performed there and how well I’ve performed there.”
“I can hardly tell you -- my mouth is watering,” Wallace said from DEI’s gear and transmission room while getting a run-through from Pennzoil crew chief Paul Andrews. “Man, I am so jealous of the set-up they have here.”
Park was hospitalized for two days following an accident in Saturday’s Busch Series South Carolina 200 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, before he returned home to Mooresville, N.C., Monday afternoon.
From there, he saw Dr. Jerry Petty, a noted neurologist who has experience with injured racecar drivers, from Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine in Charlotte.
Dr. Petty said he expected Park to make a full recovery but advised him not to race this weekend and refused to speculate about when he would return.
“We’ve found some evidence of bruising on the brain and that is what we are treating him for right now,” said Dr. Petty after consulting with Park at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
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NASCAR is analyzing Steve Park's wrecked car to see why it veered left.
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“I’m following doctor’s orders right now and if he says time is what I need right now, then that’s what I’ll do,” said Park, who missed nearly half his rookie Winston Cup season while recovering from injuries suffered in a crash at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1998. “We were on top of our game when we went out and I want to make sure we’re back on top of our game when I come back.”
Wallace practiced in Park's car in Saturday’s Happy Hour session at Darlington and started the Southern 500 at the end of the outside line of the field after the driver change.
He raced up to 12th position before the first pit stop but was knocked out of the race when a broken heat exchanger caused the cooling system to drain, overheating the engine. He finished 41st.
Park, 34, who was in 11th in the Winston Cup point standings after the Southern 500, suffered what has been called a moderate concussion when he was knocked unconscious in a T-bone impact with Larry Foyt’s car.
The accident occurred under caution when something caused Park’s car to take a sharp left, directly into the path of Foyt’s No. 14 car that was accelerating up the inside of the 1.366-mile oval to take its place for a restart.
Foyt estimated he was traveling more than 100 mph in third gear when he struck Park’s car behind the driver’s door. Foyt said the impact was the “worst in my career.”
A NASCAR spokesman Wednesday afternoon said Park’s car remained at NASCAR’s research and development facility near Hickory, N.C., where it is being analyzed to determine what caused it to veer in front of Foyt’s car.
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