NASCAR
ES: Watkins Glen: Steve Park race notes
Steve Park Comes Back From Flat Tire To Finish Watkins Glen Fifth Watkins Glen, N.Y. (June 8, 2008) - What could have been a disastrous day at Watkins Glen International turned into a successful one for Steve Park, driver of the No. 35 Waste ...
Edited: Jun 11, 2008, 11:34 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Steve Park Comes Back From Flat Tire To Finish Watkins Glen Fifth
Watkins Glen, N.Y. (June 8, 2008) - What could have been a disastrous day at Watkins Glen International turned into a successful one for Steve Park, driver of the No. 35 Waste Management Recycle America Dodge on the NASCAR Camping World East Series. Park ran in the top three for most of the event, but suffered a cut left front tire with just ten laps to go in the race's scheduled distance. Park did not give up, though, and used those final laps to race from the fourteenth position to finish fifth.
Park, a Sprint Cup winner at Watkins Glen in 2002, returned to the site of that win with high hopes. While only 26th fastest in the opening practice session, the NDS Motorsports team did not panic, and the Steve Hibbard-led crew made the necessary changes to get Park fifth-fastest in the second session. Improvement continued throughout the weekend, with Park qualifying fourth-best.
At the start of the race, Park held his fourth position for the first fourteen laps, then moved into fourth place. He made a scheduled fuel stop seventeen laps into what was supposed to be a 51-lap race, and after the round of pit stops were complete, he was sitting third and running with the two leaders. He continued to hound the first and second place cars until he slowed on lap 41 with a left front tire that was losing air. Park pitted, a fresh tire was put on, and he resumed the race back in fourteenth position, but still on the lead lap.
"The flat tire was disappointing," he said. "We had been running with the top two cars and we were only running about eighty percent. I ran over some debris and that caused a puncture in my left front tire and that put us way behind, and I had to go from being on cruise control to having to get up on the wheel and get back everything that I could."
With two laps to go in the scheduled distance, another competitor blew his engine and this forced the race to be stopped for track clean-up. At the time, Park was eleventh. He would only have two more laps of racing to work with as the distance was extended with a green-white-checker finish. What happened when the race resumed was classic Park: In less than two laps - the field was frozen on the white-flag lap due to an accident bringing out the caution again - he picked up six positions to earn his first top-five finish of the season.
"Those last two laps were something else," he explained. "I had passed four cars pretty quickly to get up to seventh, and all around me there were guys with flat tires and guys bouncing off each other. I had to really look ahead and see what was going on in front of me to make sure I didn't get caught up in anything, and we kept making passes and wound up in the top five."
The Watkins Glen race will be broadcast on SpeedTV on Wednesday, July 2 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time.
Park continues to run third in the series points, and is now the only driver to post top-ten finishes in each of the four races run in 2008. His next opportunity to continue that streak comes on Friday, June 27th, when the series makes the first of two stops at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Park has wins at the Magic Mile in a variety of cars and looks to add to his impressive record there when that race goes green at 5:10 p.m.
-credit: ajc
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 WS: Colorado: Moses Smith race notes
Next article WS: Sears Point: Tom Hubert preview
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Steve Park
Daytona cancels 'Battle at the Beach' for 2015
NASCAR
NASCAR
Daytona cancels 'Battle at the Beach' for 2015
Stevenson Motorsports closes GRANDAM era with a CTSCC second place at Lime Rock Park
Grand-Am
Grand-Am
Stevenson Motorsports closes GRANDAM era with a CTSCC second place at Lime Rock Park
Danica Patrick using Texas as jump start for 2013
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Danica Patrick using Texas as jump start for 2013
Latest news
How Marc Marquez could wrap up the 2026 MotoGP title in Qatar GP
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
48 min
How Marc Marquez could wrap up the 2026 MotoGP title in Qatar GP
Kyle Busch Remembered: Rowdy's top Martinsville moments
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Martinsville II
1 h
Kyle Busch Remembered: Rowdy's top Martinsville moments
MotoGP responds to Yamaha’s Qatar GP withdrawal
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
2 h
MotoGP responds to Yamaha’s Qatar GP withdrawal
Yamaha boycotts Qatar Grand Prix amid ongoing Middle East war
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
2 h
Yamaha boycotts Qatar Grand Prix amid ongoing Middle East war
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