They say that you never forget your first love. For 22-year-old Parker Kligerman, his first love was road course racing. Until the opportunity to sign with one of NASCAR’s premiere teams came about as a teenager, he dreamed of one day becoming a professional road racer. This weekend’s Johnsonville Sausage 200 Nationwide Series at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc. will be a best of both worlds scenario for Kligerman, as he takes to the 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course that he dubs as “one of the finest circuits we have in America” in his No. 77 Toyota Camry.
Kligerman didn’t grow up in a racing family — he simply became enamored with the sport after discovering it while channel surfing as a nine-year-old. A few years later, he convinced his parents to buy him a go-kart and so began a journey that just like a road course — has gone through several twists, turns and elevation changes.
After humble beginnings in the Norwalk Karting Association — a local go-kart track set up in a parking lot — the Connecticut native has quickly emerged through a variety of racing series to become one of the top racing talents in our sport. He graduated to the Skip Barber Racing Series at the age of 15, winning all three events he entered, and the following year the young man headed west to compete in the Formula TR Pro Series. He captured the championship in that series collecting 11 wins and three runner-up finishes across 14 races.
In 2007, Kligerman put his road course aspirations on hold and moved to Indiana to compete in USAC Midgets. He finished fourth in the Illinois State Midget Championship standings that season and in 2008 continued to run midgets in addition to making two ARCA Racing Series starts. In his ARCA debut on the road course at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, he qualified second and finished sixth. In 2009, he signed a Driver Development contract with Penske Racing and ran a full-time ARCA schedule. That season he won a series-high nine races, finished second in the series standings and put his name on the map as a future NASCAR star.
He made his NASCAR debut in October of 2009 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, capturing the pole and leading seven laps while posting a respectable seventh-place finish in the Nationwide Series event. Since that time, he has made 89 starts combined between the Camping World Truck Series – where he competed full-time in 2011 and 2012 and picked up his first NASCAR win at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway last October – and the Nationwide Series – where he ran a limited schedule from 2009 to 2012, before becoming a series regular this season with Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Kligerman has been knocking on the door of his first Nationwide Series win. He was leading with less than 10 laps remaining at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in February, led four laps and was running second as the field took the white flag at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in May and last weekend was forced to surrender a 1.5-second lead with just over 10 laps remaining after his team’s late-race gamble with Mother Nature came up just short.
The talented youngster always dreamed of racing at Road America and that dream will come true when the field takes the green flag for Saturday’s 50-lap event. As his worlds collide and he returns to road course racing, it would only be fitting if another dream is realized and the marriage of his first love and current passion ends happily ever after in victory lane this weekend.
KBM PR
- IROC Returns July 19-20 at Lime Rock Park - April 19, 2024
- RCR Race Preview: Talladega Superspeedway - April 19, 2024
- The perfect sweep: Julien Rehberg makes an incredible debut in the Rookie Trophy - April 19, 2024