The drive to win

Father-son duo switch teams for second half stretch

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When the second half of this year's NASCAR Super Late Model season begins Saturday night at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Bullring, Las Vegan Jimmy Parker Jr. will be driving for a new team but will have the same burning desire to win and the same crew chief, his father, Jimmy Parker Sr., in his corner.

The younger Parker, 19, started the season driving for Jerry Spilsbury's Quality Motorsports team with Mike Cofer and Tom Lovelady as teammates and his dad as the crew chief. Near the halfway point of the season, Parker Sr. and Spilsbury agreed to end their relationship and the elder Parker was hired by Lovelady Racing.

Parker Jr. also split with Quality Motorsports, and, with the 16-year-old Lovelady -- the winner of the NASCAR Weekly Series "Night of Fire" on July 3 in his last race with Quality -- joined forces with Lovelady Racing where the two young drivers will race for the rest of the season. Parker Jr. thinks the change won't affect the driving part of the racing series, but will only enable the team to focus on preparing the cars to be the best they can be on the 3/8-mile track.

"It won't be that much different because Tom was on Quality (Motorsports), too," Parker Jr. said. "The only thing that will be different is we won't have to work on getting four cars out on the racetrack now. It should be a lot less stressful."

Parker Jr. began his racing career in 2002 at the age of 15 in the Legends Semi-Pro division at the LVMS, where he notched four top-10 finishes and ended 13th in the point standings. In 2003, Parker Jr. finished second in the point standings with 18 top-10 finishes. He also set a track record Sept. 20 and finished sixth in the Young Lions national point standings.

Last year Parker Jr. raced in the Pro/Master Legends division before making the move to the Super Late Model division for his rookie year this year. At the halfway point of the season, Parker Jr. was in 16th place in the point standings (318) -- with teammate Lovelady in third (449) -- and was looking forward to the second half of the season and his first real win at the Bullring.

On May 7, Parker Jr. thought he had captured his first Super Late Model victory, but after getting the trophy, which he promptly gave to his father, he found out that a technicality had stripped him of the win.

"They (race officials) disqualified me because the valve lash inside the motor was 5/1,000th of an inch too big," Parker Jr. said. "It hurt because I was so excited that I won in a big car. It was such a big deal to me and my father, too. But it'll be even better when I do win."

Having another up-and-coming star like Lovelady as a teammate has made Parker Jr. an even better driver.

"When we're out at the track we're friends, but when we get on the racetrack, we don't want either one of us to beat each other," Parker Jr. said. "So we race as hard as we can, but we're smart enough not to wreck each other."

And the plethora of young racing talent at the LVMS has not gone unnoticed by another Las Vegan who is enjoying his rookie season on the Nextel Cup Series, Kyle Busch. Busch said during an interview on the Speed Channel's show "Inside Nextel Cup" Parker Jr. was in an elite group of "Young Guns" now perfecting their driving skills in Sin City.

"The announcer asked Kyle if he was threatened by younger kids coming up and taking his ride," Parker Jr. said. "And he said no, but there will be a lot of kids from (Las) Vegas to watch out for and he mentioned four of us: me, Tom Lovelady, Alex Haas and Josh Gross."

Being a teenager and racing with the veterans has been a learning experience for the Las Vegas High School graduate.

"I have total respect for all the older drivers out there," Parker Jr. said. "And they seem to have a lot of respect for me because they've known my dad for years. And they've kind of watched me growing up so I know a lot of them out there and they give me respect. But they're also going to let me know when I do something wrong, (make) a rookie mistake."

Besides learning from fellow racers on track at the Bullring, Parker Jr., who idolizes drivers Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards, also can draw deep from the family well of experience.

Parker Sr., 43, who left his position as crew chief for Kyle Busch after the 2001 season when the younger Busch was in the American Speed Association to concentrate on developing his son's skills, and renowned as one of the sport's top crew chiefs, raced a little when he was younger and learned a great deal about the preparation of racing cars from his father who also built engines for racers.

Parker Jr.'s great-grandfather, Jimmy Raulerson, raced in Florida some 65 years ago in the West Coast Auto Racing Association. Parker Jr.'s car number -- 7JR -- is an homage to his great-grandfather who also raced a No. 7 speedster.

Parker Jr. loves having his dad in his corner as well as on the radio helping him learn a little bit more with every race.

"It means a lot having him there," Parker Jr. said. "The bond between the crew chief and the driver is so much and if it's your father, it's just that much more of a bond. That was the coolest thing when I got that trophy (May 7) and handed it to my dad, to see him shed some tears and walk away with a smile. That was the best part about the win."

Parker Sr., who spends about 100 hours a week preparing cars and being the crew chief, is eyeballing the same path as his teenage son.

"I would like to see him climb all the way to premium division of the Nextel Cup and enjoy himself and learn as much as he can," Parker Sr. said. "And not spend more than two years in any one division."

Having a local like Durango graduate Kurt Busch rise all the way to the top in NASCAR, winning the Nextel Cup championship last year, has given Parker Jr. the confidence to believe he, too, can achieve his goals in the sport.

"He (Kurt Busch) came from the same track that we're racing on now," said Parker Jr. "I just think that if he can do it, then I can do it too."

Parker Jr., who races in a 2003 Chevy Monte Carlo that averages 100 mph around the tight track, hopes to race in the Featherlite Southwest Series later this year when the Bullring season ends.

"If we find sponsorship and the money, that would be great," Parker Jr. said. "I think at 19 I'm getting too old for what I'm doing. Owners like Jack Roush are wanting young kids that are 18 years old who can race Nextel Cup. I need to move on as quickly as I can and if I can have my dad with me and the guys that help me out week-to-week, that would be great."

In modern day motorsports, sponsorship and marketing have become almost as important as being a great driver.

"Sponsors are probably one of the biggest things in the sport now," Parker Jr. commented. "If you don't have a sponsor, you don't have any money and you can't race. It gets real competitive."

Parker Jr., who also works full-time for a sheet metal company and has four other big fans in his family besides his dad in mom, Jacque, brothers Michael and Daniel and sister Jenna-Marie, has the same goals as a lot of other young racers in Las Vegas these days.

"However I make it, I would like to make it to the Nextel Cup series and go race against Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch and maybe someday win the Daytona 500," Parker Jr. said.