Parker Kligerman and the No. 77 Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) team went through the first 22 weeks of the 2013 season without a DNF, but a recent string of bad luck has left the team having failed to finish two of the last three races. Luckily for Kligerman, the Nationwide Series heads to one of his best tracks this weekend, Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., for the Dollar General 300. Also playing into the talented youngster’s favor is that Bandit Chippers returns as the primary sponsor of his Camry this weekend. In seven races this season with the Mich.-based company adorning the hood of his Toyota, the Connecticut native has produced four top-10 finishes and led multiple laps in four races.
Many of the No. 77 team’s strongest runs this season have come with Bandit onboard. In the season-opener at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Kligerman qualified third and led 10 laps en route to his first career top-five finish in the Nationwide Series. The company returned at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in March, where he finished ninth and again at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for a sixth-place finish. At Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn in June, the No. 77 rolled the dice on the weather and led 17 laps late in the race before having to give up a 1.5-second lead to pit when the rain held off. Bandit’s black and yellow paint scheme also adorned the 23-year-olds Camry for a sixth-place finish at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
Kligerman heads to a track where he has had success in both the Nationwide Series and the Truck Series. In five starts combined between the two, his worst finish was a 13th-place result in his first Nationwide Series start at the D-shaped oval in 2010. Since then, he has posted results of seventh or better, finishing fifth and fourth, respectively in his two Truck Series starts in 2011 and 2012 and seventh and sixth, respectively in the July Nationwide Series races in 2012 and 2013.
After a challenging stretch of races, a visit to a track where the driver has produced strong results could be just what the No. 77 team needs to get back on track as the Nationwide Series schedule heads down the homestretch. Kligerman is hoping to put the remnants of the last three weeks into a Bandit Chippers Model 3400XP and bring his streak of bad luck to a ‘grinding’ halt.
KBM PR