NASCAR
ES: Iowa: Steve Park race notes
Steve Park Leads Seventeen Laps Of U.S. Cellular 200, Finishes Eighth Newton, Iowa (May 18, 2008) - Steve Park enjoyed a competitive day at Iowa Speedway, site of Sunday's U.S. Cellular 200 for NASCAR's Camping World Series. After qualifying sixth ...
Published: May 20, 2008, 6:37 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Steve Park Leads Seventeen Laps Of U.S. Cellular 200, Finishes Eighth
Newton, Iowa (May 18, 2008) - Steve Park enjoyed a competitive day at Iowa Speedway, site of Sunday's U.S. Cellular 200 for NASCAR's Camping World Series. After qualifying sixth fastest, he put the No. 35 Waste Management Recycle America Chevrolet at the front of the field for seventeen laps during the middle portion of the race, and only gave up the lead to make an additional pit stop for gas. He then charged back through the field to finish eighth.
Park, a native of E. Northport, N.Y. but now living in North Carolina, quickly showed that the NDS Motorsports-prepared car was going to be up front all weekend when he posted the seventh-fastest practice time on Saturday. He backed that up with a sixth-best qualifying time in Sunday's time trials on the 7/8-mile superspeedway.
"The track is great," Park said. "It's a phenomenal track to race on, and they did a great job making a track that's not a cookie-cutter mile-and-a-half track like we've seen. It's a great track to race on with three or four grooves."
During the first half of Sunday's race, Park was never far from the front of the field. He was fourth when caution came out on lap 74 and took over the race lead when those running ahead of him pitted. When the race resumed, Park held the lead until a lap 93 caution allowed him to come to pit road himself and take on tires and fuel. When the race resumed, he raced back to the top ten and was running ninth when another caution came at lap 123. He had to pit one more time for gas.
"We had to pit again because we didn't get as good fuel mileage as some of the other guys did," he said after the race. "Some guys pitted for the last time at lap 101 and went the rest of the way. We had to stop again after that."
The race ended with a 42-lap green flag run and Park made the most of that, coming from twentieth at the restart to finish eighth.
"I was working real hard those last 25-30 laps," he explained. "We had been trying to conserve our tires up to that point, and then they came on the radio and told me to let it all hang out. Some of the lapped cars were good, some of them weren't, but I just got on Austin Dillon's back bumper to race him. Our cars were equally matched and being behind him induced an aero push that I didn't have when I was in clean air. I was trying to work around him to get in clean air, and I was better than him in a couple parts of the track and he was better than me in a couple places, so we stayed neutral. I used everything I had trying to get around him."
After two Camping World East Series races, Park is fifth in the season points with a pair of top-ten finishes.
"It feels great to run up front in the Waste Management Recycle America Chevrolet," he said. "I've felt great for the last couple years, and I know in my heart that I can win races. To lead laps and run as well as we did today, in this series with all the Cup influence in it these days, is a credit to the whole team.
"I think we had a car that could have won the race and wound up seventh or eighth," Park continued. "But we'll lick our wounds and look forward to going to South Boston."
South Boston Speedway, a historic 4/10-mile track in southern Virginia, hosts the next East Series race on Saturday, May 31.
-credit acj
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article ES: Iowa: Richard Johns race notes
Next article Stafford II preview
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Austin Dillon
Behind the scenes of how 11-year-old Brexton Busch prepared for NASCAR Cup burnouts
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
Behind the scenes of how 11-year-old Brexton Busch prepared for NASCAR Cup burnouts
Can Austin Dillon pull off the Richmond Cup win for a third consecutive year?
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond
Can Austin Dillon pull off the Richmond Cup win for a third consecutive year?
Will Austin Hill be racing NASCAR Cup full-time with RCR in 2027?
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Chicago
Will Austin Hill be racing NASCAR Cup full-time with RCR in 2027?
Latest news
Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
7 h
Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors
Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
7 h
Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss
IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 7 h
IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing
Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
8 h
Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe