Kligerman Stays Solid With Eighth-Place Pocono Run

Parker Kligerman (Daylon Barr Photography)

LONG POND, Pa. - Parker Kligerman collected his ninth top-10 finish of the NASCAR Xfinity Series season with a solid outing Saturday at Pocono Raceway.

The Xfinity Series regular and NBC Sports analyst brought his Big Machine Racing No. 48 Chevrolet home eighth in the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225, continuing his quest for a playoff berth in the latter stages of the regular season.

He didn’t earn any stage points, but Kligerman was in the midst of the top 10 for most of the final stage, with three cautions in the final 20 laps giving him a chance to move forward on restarts.

Kligerman lined up 11th for the four-lap sprint to the finish, battling with Anthony Alfredo and Sam Mayer in the final laps before moving forward three spots in the end.

“Man, this was a solid day,” said Kligerman afterward. “We just were a little too loose in stage one, and in stage two the sun was out, so we just couldn't quite get there to the points. If I could get a good restart, we would be all right, but I was pretty loose to start. When we tightened it up and then the cloud cover came over, the track temp dropped and, you know, the car just came to us. By the stage three green-flag stop, we were absolutely fine.

“We were close to first place lap times until the [lap-69] caution came out, and then it just stayed hooked up for us and helped us a ton,” he added. “We stuck with it. We went from 22nd in practice to 15th in qualifying to a top five car during stage three, so that's all you can ask for is getting better throughout the day.”

The Connecticut native is in the midst of his second season with the young Scott Borchetta-owned Xfinity Series team and is slowly getting closer to victory lane.

After eight top fives and 18 top 10s in 2023 were capped off with a playoff appearance, momentum was on Kligerman’s side heading into this year.

So far, the team has taken a step back, but not a very large one. Through 19 races, Kligerman has amassed two top-five and nine top-10 finishes, sitting 10th in the playoff standings, 58 points clear of the 12th-place cutoff.

That’s close to where he wanted to be when the season started in February, but Kligerman believes the best is yet to come for him and crew chief Patrick Donahue.

“My goal was to be seventh [in points] leaving Indy,” Kligerman noted. “I don't know if that's still attainable, but it was a solid day. I think just not getting stage points probably keeps us pretty status quo, but that was my hope.

“If we can go into the Olympic break in as good a position as we are now or with a win, that’d be awesome.”

Kligerman has historically excelled on road courses and despite the new challenge of Australian Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen dominating this year’s road shows, Kligerman has finished top-10 in all four road races this year, highlighted by a season-best fourth-place effort at the Chicago Street Course.

The 33-year-old also has two career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series wins at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on his resume, and with three drafting-style tracks left on the schedule - as well as two road courses - both a potential win and a deep playoff run could still be in the cards.

With the two-week Olympic break looming ahead, it could be a perfectly timed reset for the team before their push to the playoffs begins.

Prior to that Olympic break, the NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval on Saturday, July 20 for the Pennzoil 250.

Broadcast coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA, the IMS Radio Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.