Steve Park is one of the most unluckiest drivers... He had talent but Darlington and Atlanta are big _what if_ he didn’t get injured moments

If Steve Park hadn't had his crashes at Atlanta and Darlington, he could've been a championship contender. Hell, just maybe he could've even won a championship. It's a shame that Steve's career didn't go so good.

I always like his paint schemes at DEI. He went through a lot in his career. Glad he had a career after that brain injury.

I don't think Park would have been a champion, but he had the talent to be a regular top 5-10 in points finisher. It wasn't just Park though, it was his rookie class that was unlucky. The 1998 rookie class was supposed to rival the 1993 and 1994 rookie classes for talent, but none of the 1998 class got to show it's full potential. The three headliners of the class were Park, Kenny Irwin, and Jerry Nadeau. Park: broken leg at Atlanta in 1998, severe head injury at Darlington in 2001, 2 cup wins Kenny Irwin: fatally injured in a 2000 practice crash at New Hampshire when his throttle hung open (like Adam Petty not long before, which led to a Cup race at New Hampshire being run with restrictor plates, led flag-to-flag by Jeff Burton, but I digress), 0 cup wins Jerry Nadeau: severe head injury in practice at Richmond in 2003 forced him to retire, 1 win A highly touted rookie class ended up with only 3 wins and the best points position of 11th between them because misfortune struck all 3 of the best drivers in that class.

I met him in 98 when he had his broken leg, he was so nice and positive. Great dude, great driver.

7:09 I must say, I don’t think I have ever heard someone in NASCAR say that before.

turning left made and unfortunately ended Steve Park`s career

He had enough talent for Earnhardt to hire him. And that’s saying something.

I love the part about being scared about sleeping in Dale’s house

Steve Park is: A. Underrated C. Underappreciated B. Contender D. All of the above Answer: D for duh

Ya know every time a crash happens I think it's just because their controller disconnected

One of my favorite youngsters to watch back in the day! Thankfully he got a couple of wins before his injuries took a toll on him. Could've had multiple wins in 2001 with all his runner up finishes!

My boi park doin his best

My god Steve Park was and still is underrated. Thank you for making this Jared

I'd say closer to Clint Bowyer than Biffle or Kahne. Solid driver, but I can't imagine him getting a six win season. Here's one you should cover though: Bobby Hamilton. Sean Wrona did a number-crunching project over on racermetrics, and he came out looking very impressive.

I believe Steve Park would’ve had a career similar to Kasey Kahne or maybe even better if he doesn’t enter the Darlington Busch Race.

just love that my home track stafford motor speedway is in the vid more then once always kinda just makes me happy cause i feel like the track is never talked ab and one of the hardest to drive

Park was always my favorite driver growing up. Hand picked by Earnhardt to drive for his team. What an honor. You did my boy good.

Probably part of that 1999 points rally was the fact that he got a crew chief swap, his crew chief for the rest of the year was Paul Andrews, who was Alan Kulwicki’s crew chief when he won the 1992 Winston Cup championship.

6:05 ... I still get goosebumps EVERY TIME

I always thought it was dope that he got Penzoil tattooed on his arm

Question: How good was Steve Park? Answer: An unlucky driver after only 2 Cup wins at DEI

I was at the race weekend in New Hampshire when he got the call. Ran 5 races in 2 days (2 Busch North, 2 Modified Series, and 1 Truck Series race). Ran great in all of them, including the pole I think for the truck race. Been lucky to have met him twice, once before the big accident, once after. Great guy, just behind Bobby Labonte and Dale Earnhardt for me.

That Darlington crash was probably the most bizarre crash ever. His car just happened to jerk left as a lap car was coming to catch up to the front of the field at speed. Had that happened a few secs before or after he wouldn't have had that terrible brain injury that still affects him.

Great Driver...Nice guy too...met him once in Cookeville TN When he and Kyle Petty done the Charity ride on their Motorcycles...both Great Guys🏁

I will always think of his Pocono flip because I was right there on the other side of the fence on top of an rv. It’s really the only thing I still remember from that race.

i really love his pennzoil car livery

I got to watch him drive the modifieds and Busch North here in in New England and I can without a shadow of a doubt that he was a great driver. Had he not gotten hurt and all the chips fallen where they should've he would've been a force every week and in the championship hunt.

So underrated as a driver.

You need to make this playlist

My cousin and I were huge Earnhardt and Steve Park fans when he was in a modified. We found out that Earnhardt gave him a Busch ride from our bullshitter of an older cousin, and we thought it was a prank too. We grew up in an old New England racing family, and we were lucky enough to live within 2 hours of every track they raced at up here. Ted Christopher and Mike Stefanik were our gods, but that was pretty much a given because they were family friends, rest their souls. Steve was still the first driver we ever grew to be fans of on our own, and probably the first guy who ever talked to us like a couple guys instead of a couple kids.

He had some serious talent. Maybe not consistent title contender level but he could wheel a racecar. I was fortunate enough to be at that Rockingham race and he was not going to be denied that day. I was a big fan of his and he's definitely one of NASCAR's big What-Ifs.

If Dale Sr phones you,you have talent

As far as how good he was, his modified stats are seriously impressive, but they don't do him much justice. I honestly never realized until now that I saw most of his wins in a modified. He won 6 of the dozen or so races I went to in 1995, and another 4 in 1996. I saw him win at Loudon in a modified in 1994, and then in Busch North in 1996. He was also running a super late model (we call them pro stocks up here; the link below is him winning on opening day in 1996) with my uncle and an old friend at Thompson back then. They've both had some hard hits there that they're still feeling, but they're a few years older than Park and still racing for wins. Winning in 3 disciplines where the only thing that translates is seat time doesn't really happen without raw talent, and definitely not without being a racer. I guess it's not unlike midgets, sprints, and Silver Crown on the open wheel side of things. I've always been pretty confident that he had championship talent at the Cup level. If things had gone his way, I think he could have at the least had a Carl Edwards kind of career. At the best, I think he could have been comparable to a Stewart or Hamlin. He had what it took to win championships, or at least a lot of races. It's tough to say when you look at the DEI and RCR timelines though, never mind the way the rest of the sport was headed. His career was a product of the time and a solid example of too little, too late. He was already 30 when he won ROTY in Busch, and he didn't get to run 10 Cup races before it was the beginning of the end. It's a shame that his legacy comes down to all of us agreeing that we should keep talking about the legacy we're all confident he should have had. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n9mVhdV3yrvdfqs.html

Steve park did return to the Whelen modified series for the UNOH duel at Daytona in 2013. Won the modified race

Totally agree with your assessment

He was a great driver. And my Hero. I wish things could have been different.

he had the same problem as dale earnhardt jr. injuries and wrecks.

3:38. Damn I’ve never seen a gen 4 that low to the ground.

I loved Steve Park when I was a kid. It always upset me that all kinds of terrible crap kept happening to him hardly in his control. While it seems he cheated death three times, I wish he had gotten to race his career out and become a cup champion maybe.

Jeez I wish I was around when Steve Park was on his A-game he’s such an interesting and terrible story

i like you iceberg you respect Steve Park unlike some Nascar youtubers calling him a bust

He was underrated & just surrounded by bad luck, he definitely WASN'T a bust like someone else wanted to call him, he's a what if like you said. A bust doesnt win 2 races on talent.

Fun fact: if the playoffs were held in the year 2000 (without stage wins and stage points) Park would have actually made the championship four.

This is so damn sad! I truly think that had he not gotten injured, he would've been a title contender back in the early 2000s!

To put it simply he was at his best and DEI were good at the same time for a year and a half (58 races) in that short time he had 2 wins 11 top 5s and 25 top 10s

I know this is off topic and hopefully you'll see this comment.. but you should do a video on what if Herzog Jackson Motorsports didn't close in 2003... i think it was interesting that they were leading points most of the season up until closure.

3:45 That squat is beautiful!

Good just under rated

Park was the man he built race winning cars in there Bush series.. I always liked him and Paul Andrews as his crew chief.

Its obvious Dale saw the talent in Park. I followed him because he drove for Dale. Injuries killed his career.

Video proposal! What happened to Elliot Sadler?

Can someone tell the track where steve park ran the paint scheme it shows at 2:39 plz

Wait this is new? I could've sworn I seen this before 🤔

3:41 superspeedway car?? Look how much the rearend is squatted down & even the spoiler looks like it has a flatter angle. I remember someone talking to me about using “digressive” spring in the rear on superspeedways back in day & that the cars would look odd going down the track at speed. I wonder if this is what they meant.

So what exactly went wrong at Darlington? Break an axle? Suspension or steering component?

Modified legend Steve Park

hard to say he struggled at first then did really well but then the multiple injuries that derailed his career Steve is a perfect what if...

If Big E called and wanted him , that’s validation enough.. he was good .

You should make a top 10 nascar rivalrys of all time

Injuries killed his career. He was solid at DEI earning that emotional rockingham win but after that he never recovered and ultimately swapped rides with Jeff Green in 03 and was never the same.

I feel bad for him because he had so much bad luck. DEI was a good team until Earnhardt died. I think he could have been really good if it wasn't for his bad luck.

very underrated in shit equpiment and fun fact this guy lives in the same neightorhood as me on long island

We need a Jerry Nadeau video next

You forgot to mention that on his first race back he was dominating that darlington race before he unfortunately wrecked

I think hes brain injury affected him more then people realized. I know in several interviews after he would slur his words. Never really recovered

One of the best out of the modifieds

Park is the only driver I know that has two separate crashes, two different years, but same track, and same place on the track, looking almost identical. I think back to back years. Please correct me if I'm wrong

You should do one on Casey Atwood too.

Before the injury? He was a beast and he was the reason I started watching Nascar and after his comeback and after he left ....I quit watching.

Heres another good video idea, what if Jerry Nadeau never got injured.. he's a big what if as well..

How good was Greg Biffle?

He was on the same level as Ernie Irvine and Dale Earnhardt Jr. But like Ernie Irvine and Dale Earnhardt Jr injuries took him out early in his career

it is obvious that Steve Park had talent, I mean come on Dale Earnhardt called him... That being said I think he was brought up too early like some drivers have been and when he came back from injury he drove over his head to prove himself. He won the pole with a new track record at Fontana and wrecked on the first lap and was fired the next day and replaced by Jeff Green who had been fired from RCR. But yes, we will never know...

Agreed!

9:19 - another reason Jr is beloved by fans.

He and Shane Hmeil are some of the biggest what if I've seen in NASCAR.

i have his 2001 rockingham win diecast 1 24

One of the most unluckiest talented drivers in Nascar history, this guy is awesome, he’s great to chat with now a days (he owns a battery bulbs shop in NC)

He is an amazing talent who's fate had different plans

You look at his career he was getting better and better every year. He could’ve had a late career boom like Dale Jarrett I think Park was a great finesse driver watch him at Rockingham in 2001 a finesse track. He was plagued by bad luck injuries and the growing pains of a new team. Park was starting to come into his own when he got injured consistently top 5-10. It goes back to what if Dale Sr was still around and DEI not folded. They could’ve been a very strong team year in year out and was already on the way with the strong performances from 2000-2004. You hate to see such a talented driver be forced to retire early and he was still in his prime.

I saw Steve Park race at Riverhead raceway. He had a great instinct on the track and took care of his car. Would he have been one of greats? Who knows

I still Edwards is a Huggee What If....losing that championship to a tie has got to be one of the worst ways to lose. Knowing you did all you could, and it just wasnt enough. He had so much left man.

A great chauffeur!

"DEI was not a great team" way to trigger every boomer ever with one sentence

At least he is a triple crown winner in NASCAR (winning a race in all top 3 series) Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Sr and Jr aren't even on that list

god i love steve park

Had it not been for the Darlington crash, he could’ve had a fantastic cup career

If Steve Park had come into nascar during the time of SAFER barriers he would have been a star

Steve wasn’t necessarily a bad driver, he was plagued with injuries which led to his bad luck.

He and Dale were the best of homies to

Jerry Nadeau next please

Long Island Represent

Steve Park's career easily could have ended in 1998 if Pennzoil had insisted on keeping Darrell Waltrip in the 1 car.

I think with luck of no more big injuries and dale, sr being the leader of dei. I think or lot better chance of him being a big time middle super Star then.

Steve Park is in the middle a Chaotic Good if you will

Mike Skinner next pls

Steve Park was going to be good, 2001 was going to be amazing for him had he not entered that Busch race. Then he tried to come back too soon and that ruined him and then he crashed every other week. He would have been maybe a Greg Biffle type of driver who excelled at the tougher tracks. He was that good but the injuries and his hastiness to get back in the car too soon in 2002 hurt him.

Didn’t park go back to modifieds in like 2009 or something and win a race?

Still have my tweety bird Park car