What’s a race to the Playoffs without a little bit of drama?
The final few races of the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular-season have been chuck-full of bubble-busting moments, the latest occurred late in Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway.
Parker Kligerman, who had clawed his way from well outside the cutline to being 20 points above the cutline heading into Saturday’s race, received a late-race hit from behind by Sam Mayer. The contact sent Kligerman spinning from inside the top 15 to outside of the top 30.
Here is a video of the incident between Kligerman and Mayer:
Sam Mayer hits Parker Kligerman!
Kligerman spins and falls below the cut line. @XfinityRacing pic.twitter.com/T6Tn07Pill
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 2, 2023
Instead of a solid finish, the day resulted in a 24th-place finish for Kligerman. Mayer, who has two wins this season and is very much locked into the Playoffs, says that his brakes faded down the stretch in the race and that he actually wheel-hopped his No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro as he slammed the brake pedal to the floor in an effort to not hit Kligerman.
It didn’t work. But Mayer sounded remorseful after the race.
“I feel horrible, obviously, he’s a bubble driver looking for a lot more, and I ruined his day,” Mayer stated with anguish. “Obviously, it is what it is.”
.@sam_mayer_ was apologetic after contact from him ruined another solid day for @pkligerman. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/JYeN3qd8J6
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) September 2, 2023
When told that Mayer felt horrible about the incident, Kligerman fired back with, “I think he should, unless it was intentional. I mean, he came from a mile back. I don’t know. I’ve seen the replay, and I just — there’s a whole racetrack to the right. Three or four lanes.
“I was committed to the bottom. I mean, I think I had three car lengths on him by the time we entered the braking zone. He just flat ran us over. He’s a good kid. I thought we were friends. He’s won races this year, but he does dumb stuff like that sometimes. I don’t know. He’s got to clean it up.”
Somehow, some way, @pkligerman was able to muster smiles after late race contact from @sam_mayer_ sent him spinning out of the Playoffs cutline. Kligerman says Mayer’s dad has already texted him, and he expects Mayer will talk with him about the incident. pic.twitter.com/XLSE110NgE
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) September 2, 2023
Adding to the frustrations for Kligerman was the fact that he and the No. 48 team had already rallied in the race from a loose wheel in Stage 2, which mired them at the back of the pack. What looked like a decent day for Kligerman, which had turned horrible, which was then recovered to be a solid day once again, ended up being foiled in the end by the late-race incident.
“We weren’t having a great day. [But] We were solid. We were an eighth to 10th place car. That loose wheel really hurt us at Stage 2, we lost a ton of track position basically having to fix that. But we got it back, and we were going to net a 10th to 12th or 13th somewhere in there. Limit the damage, and move on to Kansas,” Kligerman stated. “I think we’re going to be better. That got taken away from us. I don’t know. I’ve watched it, and I still don’t understand it.”
Kligerman says that he just has to, “focus forward,” for the sake of his team. And he feels that with how they’ve performed over the last 12 weeks, they should have a very good shot at advancing to the Playoffs next weekend at Kansas Speedway.
“We’re keeping it interesting,” Kligerman laughed. “We’re going to make a show of it. It’s going to be fun to watch. May the best man and team win.”
While it was a frustrating finish to the day, Kligerman was somehow able to still muster a smile at the end of the day. He was ripping apart on the inside, but when he thinks back to the opportunity that he currently has, and all the work that went into making it a reality, he can’t help but smile.
“Well, inside I’m livid. But I found a way to usually see the brighter side of things,” Kligerman stated. “I do enjoy just having the opportunity to be here. At the end of the day, I’ve worked really hard to have this opportunity. It’s been almost a decade in the making. I’m not going to let some kid knocking us around take the wind out of my sails. I know what we’re building here at Big Machine Racing, I know what we’ve been accomplishing is very impressive. I know what we can accomplish in the future. One race doesn’t make who we are or show who we are. We can get it done next week and go make a run in the Playoffs.”
Kligerman’s misfortune coupled with a sixth-place finish for Riley Herbst, who had been suffering through misfortune of his own the last few weeks, has put Kligerman one point outside of the Playoffs cutline with one race left to go.
A potential Playoff berth was snatched from Kligerman’s grasp Saturday at Darlington, but the beauty of it all is that he has one last chance to make something happen next weekend at Kansas Speedway. Regardless of which way it turns out, expect Kligerman to be wearing a smile when it’s all said and done.
