Parker Kligerman: Looking to Have a Strong Run for “Grandma Dottie”

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In: Xfinity Series News

Parker Kligerman will be looking to have a strong run in Saturday’s Royal Purple 300 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. for one of his biggest fans, his 90-year-old grandmother Doris Hammond. When Kligerman takes the green flag for the 150-lap event, it will be the first time that “Grandma Dottie” – who lives an hour west of the 2-mile oval in Glendale, Calif. – will be in the stands watching one of her grandson’s races live and in person.

 

Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Nationwide Series program with Kligerman behind the wheel has carried the momentum over from an impressive late season-stretch in 2012 with Kyle and Kurt Busch behind the wheel into early success this season. By posting top-10 finishes in two of the first four races this season, KBM’s Nationwide Series program has now finished inside the top 10 in 14 of the last 17 races, including nine top-five finishes. This year’s team has started off the season stronger than last year’s, earning an average starting position of 9.5 and average finish of 15.8 over the first four races, compared to an average starting position of 16.5 and average finish of 19.8 tallied over the first four events during its inaugural Nationwide Series campaign.

 

While the team is improving with experience, so too is its 22-year-old driver. Kligerman burst onto the Nationwide Series scene in 2009 as a 19-year-old with high accolades after posting one of the best ARCA Racing seasons in series history, winning nine times and finishing second in points. In his first-ever Nationwide Series race, the Connecticut native captured the pole at Kansas Speedway, becoming just the 10th driver in series history to accomplish the feat. He led seven laps in the race and finished 16th.

 

The future looked bright, but driving mostly for an underfunded Nationwide Series team over his first 14 Nationwide Series starts, he was only able to collect two top-10 finishes. Since then, after two full seasons polishing his skills in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and now driving in better Nationwide Series equipment, a more experienced Kligerman has posted top-10 finishes in five of his last eight starts in NASCAR’s second division, including a career-best fifth-place finish in his KBM debut at Daytona in February.

 

A young but experienced Kligerman knows that if he continues to improve as a driver and his No. 77 Toyota crew continues to blossom as a team, it won’t be long before they find themselves in victory lane. How fitting would it be if they were able to accomplish the feat in front of someone who knows a little bit about being older and wiser, 90-year-old “Grandma Dottie?”

 

KBM PR

Speedway Digest Staff
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