Hank Parker Jr.’s #53 BGN team now has a general manager. Freddie Query, NASCAR’s 1998 Slim Jim All Pro Series champion, recently joined Hank Parker Racing as a full-time employee not long after Rick Rathbun’s Team Marines Racing signed on as Parker’s primary sponsor. Query will assist crew chief Dave McCarty with both shop and at-track operations. Query worked with the team as a consultant at a handful of events during the 1999 NASCAR Busch Series season. Query also competed in a limited number of high-paying Late Model events during the 1999 season, and enjoyed much success. To hang up the helmet and become a GM was a decision he did not take lightly. Team Marines Racing has also added two new employees to its crew. Andy Spenner, 24, is from Hoyleton, Ill., and works as a mechanic on Parker’s new 2000 Chevrolet Monte Carlos, while Todd Gordon is the team’s new engineer. Gordon, 30, is a native of Camden, N.Y., and drove Limited Supermodifieds at Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway and Late Models at Evans Mills (N.Y.) Speedway before moving to North Carolina. The team will test at Daytona International Speedway Jan. 24-26 in preparation for the season-opening NAPA Auto Parts 300 Feb. 19. On its way home from Daytona Beach, the entire crew will visit the U.S. Marine Corps’ Parris Island (S.C.) facility to see boot camp firsthand. Parker will get off to an early start at Daytona’s Speedweeks by co-piloting a Dodge Viper with fellow NASCAR Busch Series driver Lyndon Amick in the Motorola Cup three-hour enduro on Feb. 4. Amick and Parker are close friends, and Amick’s father owns the car(Team Marines PR)(1-24-2000)
