Parker Kligerman: “I don’t know how to process” heartbreaking loss

Parker Kligerman took the lead from Shane van Gisbergen and held off Sam Mayer in a thrilling battle to seemingly escape playoff elimination and win for the first time in his NASCAR Xfinity career — then, everything changed.

The No. 42 of Leland Honeyman was buried beneath a tire barrier with two laps to go, but for some reason, NASCAR waited to throw the caution as they assessed the situation. In fact, they waited so long that the white flag waved briefly before the flagman even reached for the yellow flag.

Last-second caution
The caution finally flew, and celebrations erupted in the No. 48 pits as it appeared that Kligerman had just won. After 118 Xfinity starts dating back to 2009 — and weeks before he plans to step away from full-time racing — it seemed as if his moment had finally arrived.

The celebrations quickly quieted down as NASCAR informed the team that the caution was triggered before the white flag, forcing the race into overtime and another restart. A replay showed that Kligerman was mere inches from the line when NASCAR pushed the button.

Sadly, he was not able to hang on and fell back to fourth as Sam Mayer claimed victory. Kligerman, defeated and eliminated, could only watch the burnouts from pit road.

“I’ve done this interview you’re doing, and it’s always tough on that side,” said Kligerman, who has worked as a pit reporter before. “It’s really tough on this (driver’s) side. I might have teared up when I thought we got it there at the white flag. Caution comes out, had to refocus.”

In that moment, he thought back to how A.J. Allmendinger won last year’s Cup race at the Roval, holding off faster cars on a late-race restart. “I want to be at this level, I got to nail this restart,” Kligerman said in a post-race interview.

“We did that. I thought I cut off Turn 7 enough but he somehow got below me and it was on from there. I got damage. It was full contact. Sam didn’t do anything egregious. It was hard racing, but as close as you can be to the line. I said I wanted to cry, but I’m not gonna cry. I really love this game and I just really, really wanted that. It would have meant the world but it meant the world to be in that position.”

Parker Kligerman, Big Machine Racing, Big Machine Spiked Coolers Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images

He thanked his team for the aggressive strategy, forgoing stage points to get him the chance to win the race.

“They called this strategy. I didn’t agree with it. I wanted to go for points, but they were right. It put us in the position to go and get that. God, I was driving my heart out for that last run. I needed five more feet or something. If it went green to the end, we had it. I don’t know how to process this. It’s gonna take a while. Just really thankful to have the opportunity … I love this game. I just want to get a trophy.”

A raw moment of emotion then followed as Kligerman was shown a still image of exactly how close it was to taking the white flag, thus ending the race when the caution flew.

“Oh man,” he said. “Oh my gosh. You’re kidding me. What? Ugh. I don’t know. I’ve seen enough from the TV side what that — the heart-wrench and gutted-ness these people go through when you’re in that moment. It’s part of the sport. it’s why people buy tickets. It’s why they watch on The CW. I’m thankful to be in the position to have had the opportunity in my life. I love this so much. I just really wanted to get to the next round. But it was not to be. We’ll go try and get a checkered flag in one of these next ones.”