A good run of bad luck for Hank Parker Jr.

Hank Parker Jr. was a man on a mission during the opening laps of Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series (NBS) event at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham.

Starting 26th, Parker's No. 36 GNC Live Well Dodge Intrepid was on a rail, picking up five spots on just the first lap of the 197-lap 1-866RBCTerm.com 200. By the time the first caution flag flew on lap 16, Parker had moved up to 16th, and it seemed a top-five finish was well within reason.

The caution flag came out for the second time around lap 25 for a spin in turn two of the 1.017-mile track. A number of teams elected to pit during this time, but Parker and most of the other frontrunners chose to stay out.

Continuing his march toward the front of the field, Parker worked his way to eighth before bringing his Dodge to pit road for a green-flag stop around lap 92. Based on Parker's feedback that the car was slightly tight, crew chief Gary Cogswell elected to make a slight air pressure adjustment on the new set of tyres the team put on Parker's machine.

As soon as the No. 36 returned to the track, Parker knew something was amiss. He told Cogswell the car was now extremely tight, and was "really bouncing around." The condition was so severe, Parker believed something might have gone wrong with one of the shock absorbers on his entry. To avoid losing track position, Parker stayed out, but quickly lost several positions to other competitors. His No. 36 was now being shown one lap down to the cars that had pitted around lap 25.

On lap 101, the race was under caution again, allowing Parker to bring his car back in to try and remedy the situation. The team put another set of tyres on Parker's machine, and sent him back out. A moment later, the NASCAR official assigned to the team's pit stall brought bad news. The No. 36 was being penalized for pitting too soon during the caution period, and would have to go to the end of the longest line.

The penalty put Parker back in 29th position, ending any hopes of a top-10 finish on the day. In spite of the setbacks, the Welliver-Jesel Motorsports team refused to give up, with Parker driving his heart out to salvage a respectable finish. The new set of tyres seemed to put the car's handling back to the way it had been at the beginning of the event, with lap times showing the No. 36 as one of the fastest cars on the track.

The young driver's skills were on display for the television audience when his car got bumped from the rear coming out of turn two around lap 134. With the back end of his car threatening to come around, Parker managed a spectacular save, albeit one that used up most of the traction of his right rear tyre.

For the remaining laps, Parker managed consistently strong lap times, in spite of his rapidly deteriorating tyres. He brought the No. 36 GNC Live Well entry across the finish line in 20th position, one lap down to race winner Jason Keller.

After the event, Parker was understandably disappointed, but upbeat.

"The car was great today, even if the finish doesn't show it," Parker said. "If the guys keep giving me cars as good as we had at Daytona and here, good things are going to happen. We've been fast in both races, maybe one of the fastest cars on the track. The breaks just haven't gone our way so far. I'm not going to get down on myself or this race team. The equipment and the personnel are there. Now we just need a break to fall our way."

Crew chief Gary Cogswell says he's very happy with the way the team has performed so far this season, in spite of the finishes. One goal he and his crew will focus on for upcoming races is to get better starting positions.

"Our qualifying's got to be better than it was this weekend," Cogswell said. "Had we given Hank the starting spot we were capable of, I honestly believe he could have been leading the race pretty early on. He had a lot of spots he had to make up just to be near the front, which is something we'll work on."

"I'm happy with the Dodge so far, though. We've had some bad breaks that have kept us from being up front at the finish, but our cars have been strong. Just watching Hank passing cars left and right at the beginning of the race showed that. That set of tyres on the first pit stop killed us, and the penalty on the second stop sure didn't help. It's frustrating, because I know we're a top-10 team. We'll get there, hopefully, next week in Vegas."

Cogswell and his GNC Live Well Racing crew now head west for the Sam's Town 300, the third event of the 34-race NBS schedule.