Parker Kligerman said on his podcast Kickin’ it with Kligerman Thursday, that he can “absolutely, 100 percent say I will be racing” after losing his ride in Swan Racing’s restructuring.
On Wednesday Swan Racing announced its plans to restructure as a result of the budget being cut. The No. 26 team has been moved under the BK Racing banner with Cole Whitt contiuning to drive, while the No. 30 team (Kligerman’s ride) has been sold to XxxTreme Motorsports with J.J. Yeley scheduled to drive there.
Kligerman remains under contract with Swan Racing and car owner Brandon Davis said he’d look at options for his driver to get behind the wheel, however Kligerman has also been advised that he can look at other opportunities out there.
“In situations like this, I always see a silver lining,” the 23-year-old Kligerman, who is 38th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points, said. “I always see an opportunity to take it and parlay it into something bigger and better. I’ve done that two or three times in my career. I think this just gives me another chance to see where I can expand as a racecar driver.”
Kligerman said he’s received interest to drive in NASCAR and elsewhere but has yet to decide where he’ll go next.
“We have been approached by certain teams within the Cup series,” Kligerman said. A key, he said, is if those are the right opportunities for “moving my career forward. With that said, there are a couple of exciting opportunities outside of NASCAR. We also will be looking at those and evaluating and understanding them.”
He went on to say that he doesn’t care how big of a team he switches to or what series he races in. He said that as long as he is racing, he is happy, although he has not been the luckiest of drivers this year, with a best finish of 29th this year. He has started in all eight races in the 2014 Sprint Cup Series, finishing only half of them.
Swan Racing commented that, “Parker is a great kid and a good racecar driver,” and they expect him to keep improving his skills and eventually win more races.
Kligerman first found out that he may be losing his ride when the following statement by Swan Racing’s Owner was issued earlier this week.
“I want to first thank our employees, fans, and others in the NASCAR industry for their patience and understanding over the past several days while we work out the future of Swan Racing. As previously stated, the team is restructuring due to a lack of additional funding. However, over the past couple weeks we worked tirelessly to find an alternative to ending operations. Fortunately, we were able to find a home for the #26 team and the #30 team thanks to Anthony Marlowe and Jonathan Cohen respectively.”
