INDIANAPOLIS -- Steve Park figures he's shown that he is fully healed from the head injury in a September 2001 crash that sidelined him for seven months.

Why? He walked away from another wreck, last weekend at Pocono Raceway, in which his car flipped and landed on its hood. It was this season's scariest accident.

	Steve Park wants to shed the label of being fragile.

''I think that wreck dispels any rumors that I'm fragile,'' Park said Saturday. '''Fragile' and that wreck don't go together because that was horrible.''

Park was knocked out of last week's race on the first lap when Rusty Wallace made contact with Park, sending his car into the path of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Park's car, pushed across the grass by Earnhardt's, crumpled when it hit the steel retaining wall. It then flipped twice before coming to rest on its roof.

Earnhardt Jr. raced over to check on his teammate, who was conscious but trapped inside the cockpit by his safety equipment.

An already frightening scene was made more so considering what Park has been through. He bruised his brain in the crash at Darlington Raceway last fall.

Because his words can be slow and deliberate -- and he has yet to be a consistent force on the race track -- critics question whether his health is good enough to be behind the wheel of a 3,400-pound stock car running at speeds close to 200 mph.

''It's so hard to come back from an injury because you are labeled 'fragile,' and it's difficult for people to believe you should be in the car,'' he said. ''So to be able to walk away from that wreck, I think it shut some people up.''

He helped his cause Saturday in qualifying for the Brickyard 400, taking the sixth spot for Sunday's race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Park's best finish this season was 20th at Texas Motor Speedway. Despite the struggles, he's still got the support of Earnhardt Jr., who couldn't help but smile when he saw Park pump his fists in the air following his qualifying run.

''Steve is real excited. This could be a good confidence builder for him,'' Earnhardt Jr. said. ''I'm no doctor, but I think he's recovered 100 percent from his injuries and the only thing he lacks now is the confidence he had before the accident.''

Park is trying desperately to get that back.

Compounding the problem is his uncertain status at Dale Earnhardt Inc. after this season. His contract is up, and DEI officials haven't told him if he'll be back in the No. 1 car next year.

Frustrated by the situation a month ago, he said, he shunned DEI's offer of a one-year contract extension because it would put him in the same situation at this time next season.

He's now backed off the initial resistance, perhaps because other opportunities he might have aren't as good as his situation at DEI.

''I don't have a job for next year right now. I'm a free agent,'' Park said. ''But what I'd like to see happen is for this team to stay together and get this thing back on track. If we can get into next year, I really think we can get back to running up front and winning races and putting this team back to where it was before the accident.''