Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012
NASCAR Media Day
RAM PR
Daytona International Speedway
Parker Kligerman Open Interview
PARKER KLIGERMAN (No. 29 Cooper Standard RAM) COMMENT ON THE EXCITEMENT OF BEING HERE FOR SPEEDWEEKS AND YOUR THOUGHTS ENTERING A FULL SEASON IN THE TRUCK SERIES. “This is my first year where I actually can say I’m doing a full season in something, I have sponsorship. I have two rides in a time when a lot of guys don’t have one. I think the biggest word for myself is grateful. I’m just grateful to have this opportunity. Obviously, Roger Penske and Brad Keselowski have had a lot of belief in me and so this season, for me, is about proving myself, but at the same time, repaying them for that belief. And being here now, at Speedweeks, just ready to go man. At the end of the day, we’ve worked hard over the off-season. It’s been an interesting off-season for me because I haven’t been having to look for money, so it’s not been about how we’re getting to the race track, but how fast are we when we get to the race track. That’s just exciting as a driver, that’s what you want. I’m ready to go turn left and go fast.”
WITH A SECOND AT KENTUCKY AND TEXAS LAST YEAR, IS THERE ANY WOULDA-COULDA-SHOULDAS ABOUT THOSE RACES? “I tell ya, we switched our third gear after those restarts and I complained about this third gear throughout the season. We actually got to those two restarts and it was most evident that we were lacking in third gear because in that Kentucky one, if I had had third gear, I probably would have been beside Kyle (Busch) down into Turn 1. So that would have been probably a little bit different outcome. Texas, I think it was just a bad restart for us, but we ended up second. But looking at that season, there was a lot of woulda-coulda-shoulda. And I think that season, when you look at the mid-season part, we were going to win a race. We were running top five, top three every week and it was just bound to happen, I felt like. And for the team we had, that was going to be unprecedented. When we left the shop, the doors were closed. There wasn’t anyone there. We were doing it old school. I don’t like to use this term, but we actually ran into some bad luck. We had 10 weeks straight to end the season that we couldn’t control a lot of things that happened. That kind of ruined our season. There’s a lot of woulda-coulda-shouldas, but I think with all the things that are happening this year, a new crew chief in Doug Randolph, I see no reason why we can’t go out there and win right off the bat and fight for this championship.”
DO YOU HAVE MANUFACTURING BACKING FROM RAM THIS SEASON? “RAM is definitely not to the level that we’ve seen in recent years, but they’re definitely supportive of what we’re doing and that’s all you can hope for. You can hope they can see what you doing, acknowledge it, and they say, ‘you know, this is something that we can hopefully help them where we can’. We can’t just hand you a boatload of money, but we can see if there’s ways and areas in terms of wind tunnel time or something like that that we can help you guys be a little better because we are behind you. We’re very excited about that and really happy to have RAM on board.”
ARE YOU STILL A DEVELOPMENT DRIVER FOR PENSKE RACING? “Yes, still signed to Penske Racing. Actually I re-signed here in December for another year, so I’m excited about that. I think the biggest thing about that is I said to someone the other day, I’ve been there since I was 18-years old. I’m 21 now and I’ve definitely grown up as a race car driver, but at the same time, when you’re in a place like that for so long and building relationships, I’ve grown up as a person. I’m proud to still be a part of it and still working for the Captain. Hopefully, this year repays him for the opportunities he’s given me.”
IS THERE A PARTICULAR NUMBER OF RACES FOR YOU IN THE No. 22 NATIONWIDE CAR? “I’d say at least 10. That’s a good amount to kind of look at right now. I think it is kind of depending on more success and Brad (Keselowski), you know, making the Chase and running for the championship, all that will change. It’s all up in the air. I think, at the moment, but I’d say a number to kind of put out there would be 10 right now.”
IS THERE ANYTHING NEGATIVE ABOUT GOING FROM ONE SERIES TO ANOTHER DURING THE SEASON? “Obviously, if you’re in Cup and running for a championship, say Brad as a young driver trying to go out there and achieve a first championship, I think there is some negatives maybe to running the Nationwide car full-time, having to split your focus. As we’ve seen, a lot of drivers struggle in recent years trying to do both at that time when there’s a lot of pressure and you need every ounce of effort you have to go run for that Cup championship and you’re splitting your time in the Nationwide car. As a young driver, racing trucks and Nationwide, it really is almost a benefit in a lot of ways. A big benefit is say I run the truck the same weekend I’m running the Nationwide car, the same track, I run practices and a race on that track the night before. I then hop in the Nationwide car and that should be simple. As a professional race car driver, I should be able to do that any day. I think as a young driver it’s just beneficial because you learn the ways to make that happen and be successful.”
YOU HAD FOUR CRASHES AND ONE BLOWN ENGINE LAST YEAR. DO YOU TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR SOME OF THOSE OR IS THAT JUST WRONG SPOT, WRONG TIME? “I take responsibility for two of those crashes, Dover and Michigan, trying to go for a win and trying to make a win happen, trying to make it happen when you should let it come to you. And that was one of the biggest lessons that I learned last year, letting things come to you and not making it happen. The other stuff, I think for two of our wrecks, we’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time. At Talladega we were running second, basically about to lead and we get spun out. At Kentucky we have a bad pit stop, drive all the way from 21st up to fifth and get wrecked. Nothing you could do there. Running third at Las Vegas and Austin Dillon spins out in front of us and knocks us into the wall. That’s what I said – bad luck. I hate to use that term, but at the end of the day, that’s bad luck. The blown engine stuff, that was Talladega, we got spun out and I don’t count that. But as a young driver, people look at that and say ‘Oh he’s a crasher’ or something like that, but I don’t let it get to me. I know the real truth. I know what the circumstances behind it are. I think the real people in the sport that are really looking at young drivers understand the circumstances. I think at the end of the day, when you go out and have success and get an opportunity like I have this year and the second year out there winning races, that will go away soon.”
LAST YEAR YOU FINISHED 15TH ON THE LEAD LAP IN THE TRUCK RACE HERE AT DAYTONA. “Well there is an asterisk there. We were running third with three to go before that big wreck; I’m just saying (laughs). I was behind that 2 and the 51 or 15, whatever that number was, the one the spoiler fell off. Superspeedway racing, I love it. To do it a couple times a year, awesome. If we did it all the time, I’d hate it. At the end of the day, this new style two-car tandem deal that we have going on and trying to take it away and all the stuff that’s going on, I think it’s become even more about being smart because you’re going to use the two-car tandem to your advantage in a lot or ways. This Speedweeks is going to be really interesting. There’s going to be an interesting finish to every race because they’ll be people in the pack and people hooking up and people all over the place trying to time it exactly right. I think this will probably be one of the most exciting Speedweeks people will see in a long time.”
WHO IS YOUR DRAFTING PARTNER? “Brad Keselowski, man. He’s going to be running the No. 19 Twitter RAM and we have written rule almost that we will be together. Barring disaster, hopefully we can line up those last three laps and go finish one-two.”
DOES THE BOSS GIVE YOU MARCHING ORDERS IF YOU ARE ONE-TWO AT THE END OF THE RACE? “Everyone has been asking me that and I think he’d answer this the same way: if we are 20 truck lengths or a half a lap ahead of the field coming off Turn 4, I think it’s every man for himself at that point. He hasn’t won a truck race and I haven’t either, so we’ll see what happens.”
WHAT ARE YOU THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CREW CHIEF CHANGE FOR 2012? “I think as a young driver you need a lot of confidence building. You need someone there you can rely on a lot of times when you are asking the question about what’s going to happen. Bringing Doug (Randolph, crew chief) in just brings that experience, that notebook that we lacked last year. And I think we’ve already seen in the off-season with how we’re building our trucks, with things that we’ve changed. I think with Doug on board, it will almost be that little bit of leadership that we needed, that we lacked last year. Hopefully, that will be what turns us around and into being a championship contender.”
WHAT DOES BRAD BRING TO THIS TEAM? “He’s just very technical, he’s intuitive and he’s technical. Because of that, he helps us makes our trucks better. He’s not the type of owner to walk in there and talk about sponsorship and money and then walk out the door and talk to the driver and say do the job. He comes in there and he looks at the truck and says ‘What are we running here? I have an idea, let’s build the truck this way’ and that makes our trucks faster. He’s part of the reason we have been as successful as we have been in such a short amount of time.”
