Connecticut native Parker Kligerman returns to the New England area as the Nationwide Series heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon for Saturday’s CNBC Prime’s The Profit 200. Making his homecoming weekend more exciting, is the fact that Kligerman will be debuting a “powerful” new sponsor, North American Power -one of the fastest-growing energy suppliers in the country – on his No. 77 Toyota Camry. Not only would leading laps and bringing home a victory in the 200-lap event be a “profitable” endeavor for the 22-year-old driver, it would also help a worthy cause. Through a partnership with Speedway Children’s Charities, North American Power will donate $1,000 for every lap their driver leads, up to 10, to CHaD – Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth.
While Kligerman and his No. 77 team enter this weekend’s event on the heels of a tough few weeks results-wise, the single-car operation has proven capable of being able to lead laps and compete for wins in NASCAR’s second division. The upstart group led 13 laps at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn three weeks ago before surrendering the lead to come down pit road for fuel when an apparent rain storm never reached the track. They followed it up with their best overall weekend of the year – qualifying third, leading four laps and picking up a season-best third-place finish at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc. Last weekend at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, the prospering bunch sat fourth on the final restart and appeared to be in a prime position to collect their first win of the season before getting shuffled back in the closing laps and ending the night with a disappointing 18th-place finish.
This weekend’s event will be Kligerman’s second start at “The Magic Mile.” This time around he is hoping for better results, as he qualified 19th and finished 18th in the 2011 Truck Series event in “The Granite State,” which happened to be won by his current crew chief Eric Phillips.
While his result at New Hampshire wasn’t what he had hoped for, the talented youngster has a crew chief that has been very successful at the flat track. The veteran signal caller has three wins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, including dominant victories in each of the last two events held at the 1.085-mile oval. With Kyle Busch Motorsports owner-driver Kyle Busch behind the wheel of a Phillips-prepared Tundra, the duo captured the pole for both the 2010 and 2011 Truck Series events and led 321 of the combined 350 laps en route to two victories. The Illinois native also won the 2004 event in NASCAR’s third division with Mike Skinner.
Backed by a successful crew chief and a powerful new sponsor, Kligerman is hoping this will be the day he gets his first career Nationwide Series win and makes it a profitable homecoming.
KBM PR
