Steve Park Rules!

Steve Park Pre Race Report - Mansfield

Steve Park, driver of the No. 62 Orleans Hotel and Casino Dodge

Do you look forward to running on a short track such as Mansfield?

"I love the part of the schedule where we run short tracks because that’s the roots of NASCAR. Mansfield did a fantastic job last year, especially for their first race. We’re looking forward to get back there, it’s a great facility and we ran well. The race last year was great."

Most Experienced of the Orleans Crew at this track --- Do you expect questions from Charlie Wilson and Brendan Gaughan, neither of which have run Mansfield?

"I think that Charlie will do a great job and Brendan is a racer so he’ll race on it no matter what it is. Having one year of input on this track might help get us tuned in a little better than we were last year."

Secrets to Mansfield?

"Go fast, turn left. Repeat steps one and two until the checkers." (laughing)

"It’s important to get a truck that’ll turn well. It’s got medium flat banking so getting the truck to turn and get forward bite you’re going to run well."

Charlie Wilson, crew chief of theNo. 62 Orleans Dodge

Does your role change during race weekend as Orleans Racing continues its reorganization?

"Nothing on the 62 truck changes as far as anything I’m doing. We’ll carry on just like just like we always have – one team. We set up the 77 Dodge in the shop and Rambo (Tony Liberati) will make the calls and his own decisions during the race and practice. Any question he has I’m there to answer them."

Mansfield is a relatively new track for the Trucks – How do you approach it?

"We looked at last year’s notes. The crew’s been to Mansfield, Park’s been to Mansfield. So with feedback from Steve and the crew we chose a set up for the Orleans Dodge. They say it’s similar to Irwindale as far as the progressive banking. We made some changes from last year. Irwindale is down in Los Angeles, where I ran a lot, so we set it up similar to that and see how it goes."

Considering this is a short track is there anything special for the Orleans Dodge this weekend?

"A couple of extra bars up in front, but we don’t go wild with that stuff. The setup is special, but this weekend’s truck is for the most part the same as the ones we’ll use at Lowe’s next week."