With a career spanning more than 16 seasons in NASCAR’s highest divisions, Parker Kligerman has decided that now is the time to step away from full-time driving.
The 34-year-old Connecticut native has three NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series wins to his name, along with 263 combined starts between the NASCAR Cup Series (30), NASCAR Xfinity Series (116) and Truck Series (117).
After piecing together part-time rides and opportunities since 2014, Kligerman got his first full-time opportunity in nearly a decade with Big Machine Racing, with whom he’s competed full-time in Xfinity since 2023.
Qualifying for the Xfinity playoffs for the second consecutive year, Kligerman has six races left in his full-time NASCAR career to score his first Xfinity win and compete for the series championship.
Frontstretch spoke with Kligerman prior to the Sept. 28 Xfinity race at Kansas Speedway. They chatted about his decision to step away from full-time driving, his experiences in the sport, his outlook on the remaining six races and the plans he has in store after the season is over.
Below is an excerpt of the interview. To hear the interview in its entirety, you can watch it on Frontstretch‘s YouTube channel or listen to it during this week’s edition of FS‘ Bringing the Heat podcast.
For Kligerman, the decision to step away from full-time driving wasn’t spontaneous, nor was there a single event that led to his decision.
“I don’t know if there’s any one specific thing in decisions like this,” Kligerman said. “It’s a multitude of different things that add up, and then you say, ‘hey, I think I’m good.’ And it really came down to that; I don’t know if there’s any other way to describe it. I feel very at peace with it. I’ve never been so relaxed in my entire life as I have the last two weeks.
“This is all I ever chased for 22 years, basically since I first stepped into a go-kart. I want to do this. And I know that in six or seven weeks, I’m shutting that off for the first time in my life.”
And it was his full-time opportunity with BMR — an opportunity he had been chasing for nearly a decade — that made his decision to step away an easier one.
“But I’m at peace with it, this was a really cool opportunity,” he says. “Thank you to Scott and Sandy Borchetta for the opportunity and Spiked Coolers and everyone that made it happen,…
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