Steve Park’s season so far has been one big roller coaster ride and after a 30th place finish at Indianapolis Raceway Park he was anxious to see his performance get back on the upswing.
The No. 62 Orleans Racing Dodge rolled off the hauler at Nashville Superspeedway bad fast and Park proved it in practice with the fourth fastest lap in both practice sessions.
Come qualifying time Park was raring to go and had nothing but visions of a pole winning run dancing in his head. After posting the 14th quickest lap on his first trip around the track Park was astounded when the Orleans Dodge got out from under him and the truck went into a spin.
Park kept his cool and more importantly kept the truck from making any contact and saved the crew from having to unload the backup truck.
In need of a fresh set of tires, however, Park was forced to start shotgun on the field for the 150-lap race.
An irksome equipment problem cost Park some extra time on pit road midway through the race but the crew was able to make repairs and get their driver back on track with only a handful of positions lost.
Numerous incidents set the yellow flag flying a record number of times for the 1.33-mile racetrack but Park smoothly avoided all the trouble while he methodically picked his way through the field.
When all was said and done Park had earned his seventh top-15 finish of the season but fell one spot in the unofficial driver point standings to 18th.
