Childress Racing picks up Steve Park for No. 30 car

Injured driver Jerry Nadeau's condition was upgraded to fair.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Steve Park was hired Thursday to drive for Richard Childress Racing, the same team that fielded cars for the late Dale Earnhardt.
Park was fired Tuesday at Dale Earnhardt Inc., where he was the first Winston Cup driver the late car owner ever hired.
Now he'll drive the No. 30 Chevrolet for Richard Childress, who was Earnhardt's longtime boss.
"A mentor like Richard and a change of scenery is something I'm really looking forward to," Park said.
Essentially a trade
Park takes over for Jeff Green, who was fired Monday but essentially swapped jobs with Park when DEI hired him for the No. 1 Chevrolet.
Earnhardt put Park in the first Winston Cup car he fielded in 1998. He eventually expanded to a three-car operation, hiring son Dale Jr. and Michael Waltrip, and made DEI one of the top teams in NASCAR.
Park won the 1997 Busch Series rookie of the year title for Earnhardt, then made his Winston Cup debut the next season. He ran just 17 events, though, because he was badly injured in a crash.
He came back to give Earnhardt his first win as a Winston Cup car owner with a victory at Watkins Glenn, N.Y., in 2000.
Park's only other victory came in 2001 at North Carolina Speedway, just one week after Earnhardt's death in a wreck at the Daytona 500.
Six months later, Park was seriously injured in an accident at Darlington. Park bruised his brain and was sidelined seven months. After he returned in March 2002, he struggled through poor performances while ignoring speculation he wasn't healthy enough to be back in the car.
Nadeau upgraded
RICHMOND, Va. -- Jerry Nadeau was upgraded to fair condition and moved out of the intensive care unit Thursday, six days after he was critically injured in a crash at Richmond International Raceway.
A team spokesman said Nadeau's vital signs are normal.
Nadeau sustained head, lung and rib injures in an accident during practice last Friday when his car slammed driver's side first into the concrete wall at the track.
Meanwhile, Mike Wallace was hired to fill in for Nadeau while he recuperates. Wallace will begin driving the No. 01 Pontiac in The Winston Open on May 17.
Wallace has two Winston Cup starts this season and finished ninth at the season-opening Daytona 500 driving for Phoenix Racing.