FONTANA, Calif. ? Steve Park, the third driver in the DEI stable, outqualified his more famous teammates and everybody else Friday to win his first pole in more than two years.

Park, who came back from a serious concussion that cut short his 2001 season and kept him out of his race car until after the start of the next season, will start from the front in Sunday’s Auto Club 500 at California Speedway.

He earned the third pole of his six-year career with a lap of 186.838 mph, considerably slower than the track record 187.432 turned in last April by Ryan Newman.

Bill Elliott was a close second at 186.824, followed by Winston Cup champion Tony Stewart at 186.732 and Newman at 186.649.

Park knocked Elliott off the top spot by three-thousandths of a second, and the top four were separated by less than a tenth of a second.

Park came away from a crash at Darlington in September 2001 with a serious head injury that left him with temporary blurred vision and slurred speech.

The 35-year-old Park’s ability has been questioned by some since then and he lashed out at his critics after winning the pole.

“Amid all the media rumors about me losing my job … our contract’s up at the end of the year,” he said heatedly. “I guarantee you I plan being in that car until the end of the year.

“I don’t race for 20th. I race to win. If I don’t have the confidence in my team and myself, I need to go somewhere else. We need to win races and we’re not going to quit this year until we have. That will quiet all the critics.”

A year ago, there was nearly constant speculation that Dale Earnhardt Inc., which also fields cars for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip, was going to replace Park, possibly before the end of 2002, when he finished 33rd in the points.

The driver comes into this weekend 27th in the points with no finish better than 10th. But Park has persevered and says he’s gaining more confidence each week.

“I’m resilient,” he said. “I’m like an old pair of shoes. You can keep tossing me to the side, but I just fit good. We need to just get everything behind us and get back to the old ways, and that’s winning poles and winning races.”

Ty Norris, vice president of DEI, said, “If we give him what he needs, with the dedication he and his team have, they can do the job.”

Elliott, who has 55 career poles, said he was happy for Park.

“Steve’s been through a lot and I’m really proud of what he did here today,” Elliott said.

Rounding out the top 10 were Elliott Sadler at 186.393, Jerry Nadeau 186.157, Rusty Wallace at 185.830, Earnhardt at 185.706, Joe Nemechek at 185.510 and Jeff Burton at 185.414.