By David Morgan, Associate Editor
CONCORD, N.C. – Sometimes it’s just not meant to be.
Parker Kligerman came into Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 250 on the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL in must-win territory to punch his ticket into the next round of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs and for a split-second, it looked like he had pulled it off.
Until he hadn’t.
Pitting for fresh tires inside of 15 laps to go in regulation, Kligerman made the drive of a lifetime, clawing his way forward on a restart with 11 laps remaining, eventually working his way past Shane van Gisbergen with nine laps remaining on the board.
From there, Kligerman would keep his No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet at the front of the field, holding off the charge from Sam Mayer down the stretch.
Pulling out to a lead of six car lengths as the field powered toward the white flag, Kligerman appeared to take the white before the caution flag flew for Leland Honeyman burying his car in the tire barrier.
Kligerman’s crew even started celebrating thinking the race was over and they had finally scored a win that had eluded them for so long. That is until the call came down from the scoring tower that the caution was called moments before Kligerman crossed the line to take the white, sending the race into overtime.
Gathering himself back up from his near miss for the overtime restart, Kligerman did his best to hold off Mayer’s charge, but in Turn 7 on the first lap of overtime, Mayer was able to cross under him and take the lead.
From then on Kligerman was left to try and play catch-up, but couldn’t recover the lost ground, eventually falling to sixth by the time the field got back to the checkered flag.
Playoffs over.
“I’m not gonna get up here and be angry at NASCAR for anything. I mean, I’ve watched plenty from the media side and the fan side and thought, oh, damn, that hurts. But here comes our restart and you just gotta buckle, you know, refocus. And we did that…
“But man, the laps leading up to that were some of the best I’ve ever driven my entire career. And I just knew, I had to be perfect and I was. I love this game. I really wanted it. I really, really, really wanted this.
“I wanted to keep going in the Playoffs, but it’s not to be. I was thankful to be in the position I was, I didn’t agree with not going for points. But Patrick and them stuck to this plan of trying to be in the position to win. And we did that and it was the right position to be in.
“God, I mean, you know, it’s a call. And that’s sports. And you know, sometimes you’re an inch short or a mile short or whatever. What’d Vin Diesel say.? It doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile, sometimes you get a caution or get the white flag by an inch or a mile. And, uh, it was an inch for us this time.”
Kligerman noted that given his journey through the sport, it would have been almost poetic for him to win in a walk off like he almost did, but sometimes it’s just not meant to be.
“I said on the cooldown lap, I want to cry, but I won’t,” Kligerman added. “And it’s gotten close a couple times. As I think about it, I’ve really loved doing this and I’ve been so grateful to have the opportunity to be here and to be at this level and to make a career doing this. And I just love the intensity and the pressure and I really, really wanted that.
I just felt like that was a poetic, if I could just do one thing, it would’ve been winning this damn race in that fashion. Holding off some of the best in the world in SVG and AJ, Sam Mayer, who’s a Roval master now. I thought I was driving at the highest level I’ve ever driven. And I didn’t get it done.”
A Tire Call That Will Haunt SVG
Coming into the day, Shane van Gisbergen was no doubt the favorite to end the day in Victory Lane and for a while, it looked like he was going to live up to that.
But on the final pit stop sequence of the day, a call for him to stay out on older tires while the rest of the leaders pitted was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Though he put up a valiant fight on the older Goodyears, the advantage that new tires provided was too much to overcome and he was facing a losing battle.
Eventually, he would drop from the lead down to fourth place, where he would remain until overtime when he was able to climb up to the top-three. When all was said and done, he would fall just two points shy of being able to advance on.
“It certainly would have helped,” van Gisbergen said of the call to stay out instead of pitting for fresh tires. “But we had a whole bunch of others that were in a similar situation and those two guys were up front battling for the lead. Who knows? We’ll never know, but we had a good crack. I thought more would stay out with us, but yeah, it is what it is.
“Probably comes down to last week having the drama we had and the DNF there, so that’s probably it. I’m proud of the guys. The Kaulig Racing guys, we’ve had an amazing year in my first year in NASCAR and I’ve loved it. WeatherTech being along for the ride, too.
“I’m happy, but I’m also not. I’d love to keep going.”
Lap 33 Chaos
It was almost inevitable that at least one of the Playoff drivers would get caught up in an incident at some point through the day that would bring big implications to their Playoff future and on Lap 33, it was a two for one special.
Both Riley Herbst and Sheldon Creed found themselves swept up in a crash in the final chicane on the frontstretch when Herbst was spun off the nose of Anthony Alfredo. In the ensuing nine car crash, both Herbst and Creed would sustain enough damage to bring their days to an early end.
Though each of them tried their best to limp around for the remainder of the day, early retirements were in the future for both drivers.
First for Creed who fell out on lap 38 when a mechanical failure as a result of his crash damage sent him to the garage.
He would have to just sit back and watch and hope for more carnage to keep his Playoff hopes alive, but it just wasn’t his day.
“Just not our day, I guess. We were running third, and my transmission locked itself in second gear, so that was weird. First time that has ever happened to me. That was the whole reason that we went to the back.
“I thought I was going to be okay, when they started crashing. I stopped right at it, and then whoever was behind me, pushed me into it even further. Unfortunate. It sucks that our Playoffs will end this way. My guys deserve a lot more. Everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota deserve it.
“I guess, I don’t know – I will just go grab a beer and watch it unfold.”
Herbst, meanwhile, was able to get his car to the garage to the attention of his crew, which thrashed on it to try and get him back out on track. On Lap 57, he would officially retire from the race, ending his Playoff run as well.
“It wasn’t what we wanted. It sucks. This race was frustrating for me,” said Herbst.
“The Roval has never been a good track for me, but I thought we would be okay to advance if we just survived. Neither myself nor the 5 were giving up in the chicane and it took me out ultimately. We probably would’ve been fine if it wasn’t for that. Still, we struggled with the handling of our car all day so it wasn’t perfect.
“We almost stayed in it until the end, but it just wasn’t enough. There’s still four races left to try and get a win though with this 98 team.”
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