Kligerman finally gets to lay claim to a CWTS Victory Lane

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October 9, 2012

[media-credit name=”Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”230″][/media-credit]By taking the checkered flag and firmly planting it in the Talladega infield on Saturday afternoon, Parker Kligerman put to rest two worries he’s been carrying around for quite a while.

Kligerman won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon. The last few months he’s feared that his time in NASCAR was going to be over. Thanks to conquering his second worry, winning a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race. Saturday at Talladega he was finally in the right place at the right time, earning the win as the caution fell on the final lap when a wreck broke out on the backstretch.

“It’s been a long road to get to this victory. Two different teams and a lot of adversity, but today I was put with some of the best people I’ve ever worked with and some of the best people I’ve ever raced with,” said Kligerman after the Freds 250 presented by Coca-Cola.

“It starts at the top with Tom DeLoach [team owner] and this whole Red Horse Racing team. My crew Chad Kendrick and this entire team that we assembled mid-season to go after this championship when my situation changed. From there we’ve been on fire I feel like.

“It was just a matter of time before we’d get that first win and I probably never dreamed that it would happen here just because I haven’t finished a superspeedway race without incident in about three years.”

Talladega might have been far from Kligerman’s mind but winning wasn’t. Entering Saturday he had led 153 laps on the season; he’d dominated races, won poles and consistently put himself in position for good things to happen.

Instead he’s been the bridesmaid five times – three occasions this season. So on Saturday he did it the hard way, starting ninth but fighting adversity. He wasn’t up front very much because of a slew of problems: a faulty battery, a vibration then a bad alternator.

“We were sitting back there and we had trouble all day and I said, ‘What the hell – let’s go for it.’ Jason [White] was the faster truck, pushed him up to the front and all of a sudden got that caution and were looking for five to go and thank you Timothy [Peters] and then eventually thank you to Johnny Sauter to make that possible.”

Sauter pushed Kligerman to the lead, where he led the final two laps. The victory was the first of his career, one that he’s been waiting for three years. One he thought would have come a lot sooner before things changed and he was soon in a different place. Gone from Brad Keselowski Racing and welcomed with open arms at Red Horse Racing.

Saturday was a long time coming for the driver, but for Red Horse it was their fifth win of the season in their 300th career CWTS start.

“When you get close to something so many times and don’t achieve it you can pick two paths. You can doubt yourself, you can doubt the situation you’re in,” said Kligerman about the journey. “You can doubt everything around you or you can keep yourself believing and keep your self-confidence and look at the positives of what you did to get yourself in that position each and every time and say, ‘Hey, if I can do that, it’s just a matter of time.’

“And, I feel like switching teams and all of the things that’s happened, this team gave me a ton of confidence.”

Kligerman and his Red Horse team quickly hit if off. Their first three races were three straight top four finishes. Followed by a pole the following week then another runner-up finish. Talladega was a big breakthrough.

Now the group moves towards trying to capture the championship, two of their drivers sit third – Timothy Peters – and fourth in points, Kligerman.

With four races remaining he believes he still has a shot at the championship, he’s only 34 points out of the lead. What a difference from a few months ago, when he was sitting top five in points but had yet to win a race, thought his team wasn’t on par with the competition and says his career path was going exactly as he thought it would.

Doubt starting to creep into his mind. Now Kligerman can say goodbye to that doubt, goodbye to that terrible statistic he once mentioned about finishing second. And instead, try to get used to saying hello to Victory Lane.

“I felt like my career was looking at a position where I was probably not going to be a part of NASCAR for much longer,” Kligerman revealed. “To come over here to Red Horse and have a reinvigoration of my career, I just can’t thank these guys enough and I can’t thank everyone else here enough for giving me that confidence.

“There is vindication because we won. Winning fixes everything you like to say and it’s fixing everything right here.”

Talladega Doesn’t Tighten Up Point Lead Battle, Does Condense Rest of Chase Field

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SM Staff

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October 9, 2012

Talladega Final Lap Wreck — A 25 car pileup takes place on the final lap of the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Talladega Superspeedway is always known as the wild card race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup schedule. Known as a nightmare for many teams, including those competing for the Sprint Cup championship, Talladega can shake up the standings quite a bit. Simply put, the fourth and final restrictor plate event can do one of two things: it can close the battle for the point lead or it can separate it.

Sunday, after 500 miles around the 2.66 mile superspeedway, the latter occurred.

Perhaps not to the liking of the folks in the NASCAR Daytona Beach offices, or to those looking for a tight championship battle, Talladega did not squeeze the battle for the points lead. In fact, it parted it.

With Brad Keselowski opening up a 14 point lead over Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin sitting third in points, 23 points back, a close championship fight is not taking form – yet.

However, with Talladega falling earlier on the Chase schedule this season, more time is left on the schedule for the championship standings to tighten back up – and there is a good chance of this happening. With this is mind, perhaps the closest and tightest battle will not be for the championship, but for those who are arguably out of it.

Looking at the standings with six races remaining, it is clear that there are some gaps among the top three or four in the standings. However, following this gap, the point battle is quite close – and has some meaning and purpose.

Kasey Kahne, who is fourth in points, is on the bubble for his championship hopes with many already eliminating him from contention. That being a whole other issue, Kahne sits 36 points behind the leader. Thanks to NASCAR’s new point system, this is basically 36 positions behind the leader on track, 36 positions that need to be made up– obviously bonus points can make a difference and change this math slightly. Matt Kenseth, who currently finds himself 12th in the standings, is 62 points behind the leader. In relation to Kahne – fourth place in the standings – there is only a 26 point difference between the two. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is 11th in points, is only 15 points behind fourth. The simple point is that while the point lead battle may not be close, the rest of the Chase field is stacked on top of each other.

With six races remaining, much is on the line for many of these teams. For some, it is the chance to redeem a bad start to the Chase, regain magic from earlier in the season, or end a long relationship with a team on a high note. It’s also about the bragging rights of the order in which speeches are made at the post-season banquet – or even earning a spot in the banquet lineup to begin with. Perhaps most importantly, it’s knowing that as long as there is a mathematical way of winning the championship, there is still a chance and still hope.

Regardless of how one looks at it, the battle for the point lead, while holding the most attention and deservingly so, is not the only storyline relating to points.

Besides, who knows? Maybe the 2012 Sprint Cup champion will come from one of “the rest.”