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Thursday, January 23
Updated: January 27, 3:08 PM ET

Steve Park
By Jerry Bonkowski
ESPN.com

Team: DEI
Car/sponsor/make: No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet

Steve Park
Park

STATS

Year
Rank
Wins
Top 5
Top 10
Best finish

2002 33 0 0 2 Sixth, Talladega (October)

Career 2 11 32

2002 recap
The good: Park was finally able to return after a serious crash at Darlington (S.C.) during a Busch Series race in Sept. 2001 prematurely ended his season. He missed the first four races of the 2002 campaign before courageously returning to Darlington this past March, qualifying impressively in 4th place (unfortunately, he finished 39th).

Season highlight: Actually, there are two high points to Park's season in 2002. First was qualifying sixth and finishing seventh in the Brickyard 400, while the second was finishing sixth in the EA Sports 500 at Talladega in early October.

The bad: Park suffered dismally through much of his first 25 starts of the season, recording finishes of 30th or lower in 13 of those starts, and finishes between 20th and 29th in 10 other starts in that period. However there was one key bright spot: after finishing 30th at Kansas, Park had one top-10, two top-15 and two other top-20 finishes in the last seven races of the season.

Season lowlight: Of Park's seven top-10 qualifying efforts in 2002, and with the exception of Indianapolis -- where he started sixth and finished seventh -- five promising starts ended poorly with finishes of 30th or lower and one other start finished 26th.

Steve Park

Key stat: Park had five DNFs in 2002, all from crashes, meaning that he left nearly 20 percent of all races last season prematurely due to wrecks.

2003 outlook
What needs to be done: Park is still battling criticism that his performance in much of 2002 indicated perhaps he's not fully recovered from his concussion at Darlington in 2001. However, his finishes in the last seven races showed Park may very well finally be back to 100 percent and ready to get back on track in 2003.

Prediction: Park has had enough bad luck and performances in the last 18 months to last him a lifetime. He's ready to bounce back, and has the potential to do so in a big way. While it will take a lot for him to challenge for the championship, there's a good likelihood that he can finish in the top-25 this coming season, if not potentially in the top-15.

Your take
Will Park finally rebound from his concussion and compete for a spot in the top 15 or higher? Here are your thoughts on Park's prospects for the 2003 season.

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