By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
For Parker Kligerman, a drive into Texas Motor Speedway opens the cap on what his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career has become. Not only is he returning for his 18th career start in Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, but it comes at the track that started it all.
In 2013, the Connecticut native made his Cup Series debut for Swan Racing’s No. 30 Toyota. After running nearly the full Xfinity Series schedule that year by that time, Kligerman was ready for the step up the competitive ladder.
And it started pretty well, as Kligerman scored what was the team’s second-best qualifying effort when he placed 23rd. To this day, it is still Kligerman’s best series start.
“We had speed the whole time,” Kligerman said. “That was a cool weekend.”
But the learning process started even before qualifying, as the then-23-year-old scored expensive advice by one Cup champion.
“One of the coolest things was leading into the weekend I got to speak to Jimmie Johnson,” he said. “He was super open about giving me advice about things to do in a Cup car.
“It was funny — everything he told me, when I did it, we went faster and we were better. He was a great teacher.”
The advice showed its benefits during the long 500-mile race. Despite the uncertainty with such a long distance to race, Kligerman eventually jumped into the top 20.
“I didn’t know what to expect from a 500-mile race, I hadn’t done that,” he said. “We went out and had a day and night that was spectacular. We never made a mistake. The team excelled and excecuted really well.”
Kligerman knew he was on a roll when he started passing more competitive equipment, including Richard Petty Motorsports.
“I remember during the last run of the race, I was passing cars so fast. I ran over Marcos Ambrose,” he said. “You’d look at the budget they had compared to our car — we ran them over. Our lap times were in the top 10 at the time. We were flying.”
Finishing 18th, the result was one of Swan’s best of the 2013 campaign and stood at Kligerman’s best in Cup until breaking the number this year in the Daytona 500, finishing 15th.
“I hate that it took all the way to Daytona this year to better that finish,” he said.
Starting 33rd on Sunday, Kligerman is just happy to be back at Texas.
“I’ve always have thought fondly about this place because of that,” he said. “I’ve always liked coming to Texas.”