{"id":169311,"date":"2025-08-23T14:14:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T14:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/169311\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T14:14:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T14:14:13","slug":"kligermans-daytona-win-is-multiple-levels-of-meaningful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/169311\/","title":{"rendered":"Kligerman’s Daytona ‘win’ is multiple levels of meaningful"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past calendar year, Parker Kligerman<\/a> has earned three NASCAR national touring victories no matter what the Racing Reference and Third Turn pages technically have to say about it.<\/a><\/p>\n

Kligerman crossed the line first in the Xfinity Series race at the Charlotte Roval last year before NASCAR determined a caution had come out before the start of the final lap. He lost in overtime.<\/p>\n

The next heartbreak came at Daytona in the Truck Series opener in February when his victory was stripped over a technicality\u00a0in post-race technical inspection. Six months later, in a bit of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, Kligerman was in Victory Lane in the Xfinity Series race at Daytona but only as a substitute driver for the still recovering Connor Zilisch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They swapped rides during the first caution, and since Kligerman did not start the race, the win has technically been credited to Zilisch.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a statistical cruelty but in the moments immediately afterwards, Kligerman did not remotely care. He celebrated in Victory Lane, a moment unspoiled by technical inspection, while also allowed to enjoy an experience that wasn\u2019t promised following his retirement from full-time racing last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I think I kind of made peace with the decision I made last year,\u201d Kligerman said \u201cThen when this came along, I thought if it was anyone other than Dale Earnhardt Jr.<\/a> calling, I probably would not have done it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seriously?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think so. Like, I didn\u2019t have this burning desire to jump in and run an Xfinity Series race but these are the best cars in the series right now and they are winning all these races with (Zilisch) and he was really cool to hang out with this week. I got to know him better.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think all those circumstances added up to make me want to do it. And it was cool that CW (Network) allowed me to do it because I basically had to ask for this weekend off to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the Parker Kligerman Story at 35-years-old and counting.<\/p>\n

A once promising prospect turned journeyman racer announced his retirement to pursue a broadcast career. He is objectively great at it. Since making that announcement, he had two wins denied in the most painful fashion possible, and still never wavered in his decision.<\/p>\n

\"Dale <\/p>\n

Dale Earnhardt Jr.<\/p>\n

Photo by: James Gilbert \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, Earnhardt made him crack, even if just a little bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, this may present an opportunity he wants to pursue but at some point, he has to decide right,\u201d Earnhardt said. \u201cHe\u2019s got to go all-in on the media side because there are some real opportunities for him to have some success with all the partners we have in Cup and Xfinity.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you don\u2019t want to give up your (racing) seat here either. That\u2019s a real tough situation he\u2019s in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, it wasn\u2019t that tough until Earnhardt had to go and break his resolve after they won a race together at The World Center of Racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cDale, what are you trying to do to me,\u201d Kligerman shouted to Earnhardt, who was still in the room when he was told about this exchange. \u201cI\u2019m trying to make a choice over here,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, maybe, possibly, maybe not \u2026 it would take a once in a lifetime sort of opportunity or situation that I don\u2019t know is there or could even materialize. I just really feel excited about the things I am doing outside of racing right now \u2026 but it would have to be life changing \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

So, that isn\u2019t a no, absolutely not?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m sitting here after having won, so it\u2019s really easy to be like, \u2018oh, yeah, let\u2019s do this every week.\u2019 I know how good (Connor Zilisch) and the guys like him are so it would have to take a seriously good situation to entertain that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd not to be a downer, but I just don\u2019t think it is possibly out there, and that is okay. I am fine with that. I am really excited about what I am doing and enjoying it. I get to do cool stuff like this sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Connor <\/p>\n

Connor Zilisch and Parker Kligerman, JR Motorsports Chevrolet<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sean Gardner \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

For his part, Zilisch was proud to have shared this moment with Kligerman too, even though it took every bit of resolve in him to agree to not finish the race 10 days removed from collarbone surgery.<\/p>\n

Zilisch literally ran onto the infield to be the first to congratulate Kligerman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just pumped,\u201d Zilisch said. \u201cYou come to Daytona and anyone can win. Not knocking Parker but I was just ecstatic. I was super excited for Parker, excited for my team, and I had to thank him since he kind of won with my name.\u201d<\/p>\n

And sure, even though the Racing Reference page will show yet another Parker Kligerman win that wasn\u2019t, he got to leave Daytona this time knowing there was really no asterisk next to his physical accomplishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking about February on that last restart, for sure,\u201d Kligerman said. \u201cYou know, that was an unfortunate situation but you can\u2019t dwell in the past and let that sort of thing fester.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew this was an opportunity to win Daytona. That is what excited me the most when Dale called and this came together. Obviously, I hate the circumstances of why thus happened but I\u2019m glad to make a positive out of something that was really negative and glad that it wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past calendar year, Parker Kligerman has earned three NASCAR national touring victories no matter what the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":169312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[96980,94921,64830,5817,5818,33810,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-169311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-dale-jr-might-have-cracked-parker-kilgermans-resolve-with-daytona-win","9":"tag-daytona-ii","10":"tag-daytona-international-speedway","11":"tag-jr-motorsports","12":"tag-nascar-xfinity","13":"tag-parker-kligerman","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115078500568273054","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}