By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
Parker Kligerman may be a popular television race commentator but the 31-year old Connecticut driver reminded the NASCAR world that he is first, a race car driver, winning Saturday’s Inaugural O’Reilly Auto Parts 150 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in a highly-spirited final laps battle with Zane Smith.
Ultimately, Kligerman held off the three-time race winner Smith – the two crossing the line side-by-side with Kligerman’s No. 75 Henderson Racing Chevrolet taking a .119-second margin of victory in a race that concluded with all the drama expected of a road course event.
Smith – who won at Circuit of the Americas and finished runner-up at both Sonoma, Calif. and Mid-Ohio – takes a great “consolation prize” with his second-place finish Saturday. He heads into the regular season finale in two weeks now only two points away from earning the 2022 regular season Camping World Truck Series championship.
Saturday’s victory is the third career series win for Kligerman and first since 2017. And he becomes the series’ 17th consecutive different winner on a road course.
“It’s hard to put into words [what this means], I was pretty emotional on the cool-down lap because this whole team it’s like a team of second chances,” said an absolutely elated Kligerman of his small team.
“Two years ago, I thought my driving days were done. This team gave me a call, wanting to get back racing and it’s just been a steady improvement.
“It’s just unbelievable when you put a talented group of humans together, what they achieve,’’ Kligerman said of his Henderson Racing team, which employs only one fulltime crew member. “And we’re doing this on absolutely a fraction of the trucks we run against.
“This is a small team that ‘could,’ but we’re not a small team that doesn’t win,’’ Kligerman shouted turning toward the crowd. “We win.”
Corey Heim was making it a three-truck contest for the trophy, going wheel to wheel with Kligerman and Smith for what would have been an extra $150,000 Triple Truck Challenge bonus for him when his No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota suddenly lost power. That brought out the seventh caution period of the day and left the trophy to be decided in a frantic three-lap sprint by Kligerman and Smith, who each won a stage.
Kligerman, who led a race best 56 of the 67 laps -also earned a $50,000 bonus for his win in the third and final…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at NASCAR – Motorsports Tribune…