Parker began racing go-karts near his home in Denver, North Carolina. From there, he moved onto street stock racing at Concord Motorsports Park, where he won seven feature racing events in his first eighteen starts. The next season, he began running Late Model races and finished fifth in points. He won two races the next year.
Career
In 1997, Parker moved to the Slim Jim All Pro Series, a former NASCAR touring series located in the Southeast United States. Parker picked up one win and was named the series' Most Popular Driver. He also made his NASCAR debut at the Jiffy Lube Miami 300 at Homestead in the No. 78 Mark III Financial Chevrolet, starting 41st and finishing 23rd.
Parker returned to the 78 in 1998, hoping to run the full schedule. After he was unable to qualify for most of his attempts, he was released. He did not run again until the AC Delco 200, where he finished sixth in the No. 53 B.A.S.S Chevrolet owned by his father.
Parker ran his father's car full-time in 1999, posting two top-fives and finishing 18th in points. He also finished second to Tony Raines for Rookie of the Year honors despite missing five races. In 2000, Parker received sponsorship from Team Marines and won his first career pole position at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He also had eight top-tens and finished a career-best fourteenth in points.
At the end of the 2002 season, Parker was to take GNC over to ppc Racing but due to a new law that restricts advertising with supplements, this caused GNC to leave NASCAR and therefore, leaving him without a full-time ride into 2003. He began the season running a pair of races for Brewco Motorsports, finishing sixth at Darlington Raceway. He ran four more races that season splitting time between NEMCO Motorsports and Chance 2 Motorsports, finishing fifth twice. He also made his Craftsman Truck Series debut driving the No. 75 for Spears Motorsports, posting two top-ten finishes.
Hank standing in front of his 2004 Craftsman Truck @ Michigan International Speedway for the Line-X 200.
In 2004, Parker signed to drive for Innovative Motorsports' new Craftsman Truck team. He had four top-tens and finished seventeenth in points. Unfortunately, Innovative closed its doors at the end of the season,[2] leaving Parker unemployed again, he would join Roush Racing to mentor Rising star Carl Edwards from 2005 to 2006, he would also qualify Edwards car when he was at the Nextel Cup tracks for qualifying, he made his last start in 2005 filling for Carl Edwards at Nashville as Carl convinced team owner Jack Roush to let Hank give it a shot. He won his second and final Busch Series pole, but finished 20th.
Parker then decided to retire from racing; he joined his father and brother to produce Hank Parker 3D, an outdoors-themed television show,[2] then Hank Parker's Flesh and Blood, a hunting show.
Personal life
Parker is an outspoken Christian, he has credited God when he got his 2 Busch Series wins. He is also friends with Dale Earnhardt Jr. as they met when they were kids on a fishing trip as his father Hank Parker was friends with the late Dale Earnhardt. Parker currently works at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, a Christian camp in AndrewsNorth Carolina as a preacher time to time while also working as Executive Director of Sales, Marketing & Programming.
Motorsports career results
NASCAR
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
