ABINGDON, Va. — Asked why he’d take a part-time ride despite his work as an analyst, Parker Kligerman responded “Why not.”
Speaking to the media at the shop of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team Henderson Motorsports, Kligerman expounded on his reason for taking the aforementioned limited ride.
“It’s fun. I still enjoy racing,” he said. “Even though I have a day job, I say this is my weekend job. For me, it only helps that job, and vise-versa. The coolest thing is just getting to go race and have fun.”
He added that his crew chief Chris Carrier was instrumental in “why this came together the way it did.”
“[Chris and I have] always talked about trying to get back together to go racing after our ARCA days,” he added.
“When this whole deal came together late last year, it made sense.”
With his role as an analyst for NBC, “partial makes sense.”
Secure rides in any of the three national touring series haven’t come easy for the driver of the No. 75 Henderson Motorsports Toyota, who’s sharing the ride with Caleb Holman. Since his first NASCAR start for Team Penske in the XFINITY Series at Kansas in 2009, he’s run only three complete seasons in any series. He was hired to drive the No. 30 for Swan Racing in the now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, but found himself out of a ride when the team terminated operations eight races into the season. Towards the end of 2014, he was hired as a driver analyst by NBC Sports.
While it’s his primarily focus. He’s also “tickled to death” that he can do his “day job” with all his traveling and still run eight to 10 races a season.