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GNC Live Well 300 - Hank Parker Jr. Notes Hank Parker Jr. / GNC Live Well Racing Pre-Race Notes EVENT INFORMATION - Event: NASCAR Busch Series GNC Live Well 300; Time and Date: 1:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, Nov. 10; Site: Homestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, Fla. Live Coverage: NBC Network (television) and MRN (radio) at 1:30 p.m. ET. Qualifying: 1:30 p.m. ET, Friday, Nov. 9; Happy Hour: Friday, Nov. 9, approx. 4:30 p.m. ET. LAST RACE (Sam's Club 200) - Hank Parker Jr. and the GNC Live Well Racing team scored their fifth top-10 finish in the past six events with an eighth-place result in the Nov. 2 Sam's Club 200 at North Carolina Speedway. STANDINGS - Hank Parker Jr. remains 16th in the NASCAR Busch Series Drivers' Points Standings, and team owner Scott Welliver is 20th in owners' points. PAST PERFORMANCES AT HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY - In November 1997, Homestead-Miami Speedway was the site of Hank Parker Jr.'s first career NASCAR Busch Series start. In the Jiffy Lube-Miami 300, Parker started 41st and finished 23rd in the No. 78 Mark III Motorsports entry. Driving the No. 53 Chevrolet for his family-owned team, Parker started fifth and finished fourth at this facility in 1999, and started third and finished seventh in 2000. Parker has also raced at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in an entirely different series. In 2000, Parker served as the co-driver, along with Lyndon Amick, of a Team Amick Dodge Viper in a Motorola Cup Series road-racing event at the facility. GIVE ME BACK MY "BULLET" - The GNC Live Well Racing team will again utilize one of Parker's favorite cars in the Welliver-Jesel Motorsports stable, known as "Bullet." Fans might recognize this car as the same one Parker used to score a runner-up finish at Kansas Speedway in late September, then drove to a seventh-place finish the following weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway. The car was originally slated to make the trip to the North Carolina Speedway last weekend, but crew chief Gary Cogswell and the team elected to use it in the season-ending event instead. Ironically, "Bullet" was not one of the two cars the GNC Live Well Racing team tested with at the Homestead-Miami Speedway a few weeks back. NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR - As if Hank Parker, Jr. needed any additional incentive to do well in Homestead, Fla., the company that sponsors his race team is also the title sponsor for Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series (NBS) event, the GNC Live Well 300. GNC Live Well is the largest nationwide specialty retailer of vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements, sports nutrition and personal care products. For the Pittsburgh-based organization, the GNC Live Well 300 marks the fourth sponsorship of a NASCAR event. Earlier this season GNC served as the title sponsor of the NBS events in Milwaukee and Watkins Glen, and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in Milwaukee. GNC is also "The Official Vitamin Store of NASCAR. HANK PARKER JR. ON HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY - "There's no better track, in my opinion, on the NASCAR circuit. I'm biased, though, because I've had some success here. With the momentum this team has going for us right now, though, I don't think a top-five or a shot at the win is out of the question. The place owes me one, I think. We led a lot of laps there in 1999 until we ran out of gas near the end of the race. I remember that Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. pushed me down pit road with his car to help me get to my pit stall. My dad was yelling at me on the radio. He thought I was holding Dale Jr. up by being in the way. I had to explain the situation to him. It got a little heated." ON 2002 AND BEYOND - "I'm looking forward to next year a lot. I can't say that this year has been everything I'd hoped it would be. I always want to move forward, but in some ways I took a step back this year, in terms of where I'll end up in the points. I did get my first win, though, so this year will always be special in that respect. I've also had a pretty good string of top-10 finishes here at the end of the season, so that's another big positive. "As far as the future, I'd love to get to Winston Cup in the next year or two. That's been my goal all along, but I think that staying in the Busch Series has been the right move for me. I've learned a lot this year, and I think I've become a better driver than I was last year at this time. I think I've shown some people that I can drive one of these cars. I've still got a few things to prove, maybe. With the crew chief and the team we've got together now, I believe we can reach the goals I've set for myself and the No. 36 team." CREW CHIEF GARY COGSWELL ON HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY - "I think Homestead is the nicest track we race at on the Busch circuit. It's a very modern facility and the track surface is great. Plus, it doesn't hurt my feelings to go to south Florida in November, either. I think the way the backstretch is elevated it's got to be a great place to watch a race from the grandstands. "I don't consider Homestead to be one of the 'cookie-cutter' 1.5-mile tracks like Kansas, Chicago, Kentucky, Atlanta and Charlotte. First, it's a true oval and secondly, it's very flat. It's a very forgiving track to drive. The speed is high enough that your aero package is important. You have to use a softer spring package, just because the flatness of the track doesn't give you much vertical downforce. The softer springs let the car sit down on the track more, which helps." ON CONSISTENTLY FINISHING IN THE TOP-10 - "I won't say I'm surprised about five top-10 finishes in six races. I knew all the elements were there. We just had to get them together. I told all the crew guys to go back and look at the Busch champions from years back. When you look at their stats, the one thing that's constant is that the Busch champion is the guy who has the most top-10 finishes. When David Green won the championship, he only won one race, but he had the most top-10's. If the guys will focus on consistently finishing in the top-10, the rest of it will come to us." 2001 SEASON SUMMARY - 32 starts, 1 win (Auto Club 300, April 28, California Speedway) 2 top-five and five top-10 finishes [(1st) California, 4/28/01; (8th) Dover, 9/22/01; (2nd) Kansas 9/29/01; (7th) Charlotte, 10/6/01; (8th) Phoenix, 10/27/01; (8th) Rockingham, 11/2/01] Winnings, $806,927 (Fifth-highest total among Busch Series drivers in 2001).
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