In June, recent off of an eighth-place end within the NASCAR Xfinity Sequence race at Portland Worldwide Raceway, Parker Kligerman went for a run within the mountains. He’d spent years chasing the highest ranges of motorsport, reaching them, falling out of them, then climbing them once more. Throughout that point, he’d have waves of feelings about how his driving profession would finish. When morale was low, he’d suppose: “Rattling it, you most likely ought to cease chasing this.”
But it surely wasn’t till this yr, amid a gentle Xfinity Sequence profession and a top-10 run within the sequence championship, that Kligerman reached the highest of that mountain and had a second of readability.
“I used to be identical to, ‘I believe I am good,’” Kligerman informed Motorsport at Phoenix Raceway, his closing race as a full-time driver. “And that was it.”
A pair weeks later, Kligerman, 34, talked to Scott Borchetta, his workforce proprietor at Large Machine Racing. Borchetta was “very supportive,” they labored out the main points of Kligerman’s departure, and the workforce signed 23-year-old Nick Sanchez for 2025. Kligerman introduced the tip of his full-time driving profession in September, three months after that post-Portland run.
When it got here to the ultimate race of the season in Phoenix, Kligerman wasn’t visibly unhappy. He mentioned he largely felt grateful and completed, particularly after assembly followers over the weekend who thanked him for his presence within the sport.
“Like, I did this,” Kligerman mentioned. “I bought right here. Despite the fact that I am not racing for a championship as we speak, and I have never been as profitable as I needed, I do really feel completed to have completed this — and completed it at a very excessive stage, for actually storied organizations — and labored with among the finest within the sport. The child who noticed this on TV at 9 years outdated in some way made all of it work.”
Parker Kligerman, Xfinity 2013
Photograph by: Motion Sports activities Images
Kligerman’s profession has been a zig-zag. He ran his rookie season in NASCAR’s fourth-tier sequence, ARCA, as a 19-year-old improvement driver for powerhouse workforce Penske Racing. That yr, he received 9 of 21 begins.
Within the decade that adopted, Kligerman raced each NASCAR nationwide sequence — Vehicles, Xfinity, and Cup — for main groups like Penske, Brad Keselowski Racing, and Kyle Busch Motorsports, in addition to underfunded ones like Swan Racing. The quantity of races he ran fluctuated every year, and he supplemented drier spells with different work, resembling being a presenter on NBC’s NASCAR broadcasts.
However for the previous two years, Kligerman had a gentle experience within the No. 48 automobile for Large Machine. He introduced his retirement with particular phrasing: “I’ll now not be pursuing racing full-time.”
“The explanation I mentioned ‘Not pursuing full-time’ was that all the time, each second was: ‘How do I get to full-time once more?’” Kligerman informed Motorsport. “Each single low season, each single yr, from the primary day I did TV till the Large Machine Racing deal, there could be like three or 4 offers that may be within the air. Like, ‘I will get this, I will get this.’ After which it could fall via.”
Kligerman’s journey — and closing day at his job — is relatable. Folks usually discover which means and self-definition of their work, as a result of they spend so many hours of their lives doing it. Leaving a job will be unsettling, even when there’s freedom on the opposite facet.
Parker Kligermann, NBC SN
Photograph by: Motion Sports activities Images
However skilled driving isn’t a typical job, or perhaps a typical sport. Youngsters with assets start karting at kindergarten age, and so they want time and monetary assist to have a shot on the large leagues. From that age onward, day off is simply time misplaced to different drivers climbing the ladder.
“I by no means seen [racing] as a profession,” Kligerman mentioned. “It was identical to, ‘That is life. That is what I do, that is what I’m going after, and that is what I wish to do.’ For any driver, whenever you’re climbing the ranks, it is identical to: ‘What’s subsequent? What’s subsequent? What’s subsequent? What’s subsequent?’ Then, when you get to the highest, there’s nowhere above that. You begin to see the place you stack up, and also you begin to get this concept of, ‘Hey, am I going to be the very best ever?’ ‘Okay, I am not.’
“Now you must have a reckoning, as a result of no one will get into this considering you are not going to be the very best there ever was. You begin to see what your weaknesses are, and see should you can work on being higher.”
Kligerman mentioned he by no means felt “settled or calm” about motorsport, as a result of he continually needed extra from it. Then, on trip earlier this yr, he went per week with out eager about racing. He turned to his good friend and mentioned: “That was bizarre.”
“How do you are feeling?” the good friend requested.
“It was sort of cool,” Kligerman responded.
“To chase this factor, it is a 200-mile-per-hour, what’s-right-in-front-of-you endeavor,” Kligerman informed Motorsport. “You’ll be able to’t take into consideration the rest. You must have a fireplace inside that is like: ‘That is all that issues.’ The second I had the sensation that there have been different issues that mattered to me, I used to be like: ‘Okay, that is it.’”
Parker Kligerman, Large Machine Racing, Large Machine Spiked Coolers Chevrolet Camaro
Photograph by: Rusty Jarrett / NKP / Motorsport Photos
Kligerman received three races within the third-tier NASCAR Truck Sequence and 10 in ARCA, and he’s all the time needed so as to add an Xfinity win. In October, Kligerman led late within the Xfinity race on the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval, driving in a fever to remain forward of a area stacked with road-course specialists. He needed to win to advance to the following spherical of the NASCAR playoffs, and he was about to try this.
Kligerman ran out entrance for 12 of 72 laps late within the race, charging towards the white flag. (The white flag alerts the final lap. In NASCAR, a warning earlier than the white flag leads to a restart. A warning after it ends the race.) Kligerman was inches away when a warning got here out.
His lead vanished, and the sector stacked two-wide for a restart.
“I knew it was shut,” Kligerman mentioned. “However then, I got here across the nook, and so they had an enormous display screen. I see [my crew chief] Patrick [Donahue] come down from the pit field. I am like: ‘We received! We did it!’ I positively cried.
“Then they have been like: ‘We did not get the white.’ I simply went again within the zone. I used to be like: ‘Alright bud, simply bought to nail this restart. Two extra laps.’”
Kligerman nailed the restart and bought forward of the sector. However not lengthy after, eventual winner Sam Mayer caught him and made contact. Kligerman mentioned the contact damage the automobile, inflicting him to fall again and end sixth. Even with out the win, he’s “blissful about it.”
“That’s the finest 10 laps I’ve ever pushed, below essentially the most immense stress,” Kligerman informed Motorsport. “That is my favourite race I’ve ever pushed.
“I inform individuals the good factor in regards to the NASCAR playoffs is that in no different type of racing will you be put in a race that is like: ‘Hey, you must win this to go on.’ It is solely in NASCAR, and I hadn’t skilled that but. I would seen it from the TV facet, and I am like: ‘That have to be essentially the most insane feeling.’ There isn’t any increased stress you are ever going to be below in a race automobile than whenever you’re main and you could win that race. You have to put all of it on the road and carry out, and we did.”
After the near-win in Charlotte, individuals requested if it made Kligerman wish to maintain going. He informed them: ‘If one end result might have an effect on my determination, it wasn’t very highly effective.’”
That’s as a result of his determination was greater than outcomes. It was a realization that he ought to sit again and luxuriate in life extra.
“I believe, positively, I’ve taken racing manner too severely and let it eat at me,” Kligerman mentioned. “My life has been measured by an 8-by-11 sheet of paper each time I step right into a automobile. You are measured on the way you conduct your self, the way you work together with the workforce, the way you do the [racing] sim[ulator], the way you do practices, the way you check. Every little thing issues.
“Everybody makes use of the phrase ‘sacrifice,’ however you do. There’s no one who does this who’s not going to inform you it takes actually all the things you’ve got, each waking second, to do that.”
Race winner Parker Kligerman, Henderson Motorsports, Meals Nation USA/Tide Toyota Tundra
Photograph by: Gavin Baker / NKP / Motorsport Photos
Kligerman isn’t completely certain what’s subsequent. He’s going to proceed his tv profession, movie for his YouTube channel, and attempt to run bucket-list races just like the Rolex 24 at Daytona Worldwide Speedway. However by way of subsequent yr, Kligerman mentioned: “We’re letting the universe present.”
“Hopefully, I will be profitable at what I am doing subsequent,” Kligerman mentioned. “I’m somebody who most likely values profession development manner an excessive amount of. I positively have grown up rather a lot on this, and I believe within the final two years, I’ve realized rather a lot about myself and my capability for stress. That offers me numerous consolation on this subsequent part, matter what I do. It is like: ‘Hey, you’ve got completed it below the very best doable stress there may be. You carried out.’ And that makes me very excited for what’s subsequent.”
In Phoenix, Kligerman mentioned he couldn’t be unhappy about retiring, as a result of he bought to race for therefore lengthy. Plus, it was “so uncommon and ridiculous that it ever even got here collectively within the first place.” He mentioned his childhood self would marvel why he was retiring now — and why he didn’t win extra races — however that he’d be proud to know the grownup model of Kligerman grew to become much more like his racing idols than he ever thought he would.
Kligerman additionally needs different individuals to know: In the event that they’re eager about chasing a motorsport dream, “they completely ought to.”
“It is an irrational recreation that is unnecessary,” Kligerman mentioned. “There are tens of hundreds of thousands of causes you should not do it. But when you’ll find one purpose to, then go. There’s a lot to be realized in doing one thing like this, that requires a lot of you in so many various capacities. Regardless of how profitable you’re, you’d be capable of look again at chasing one thing like this and realize it was price it, it doesn’t matter what the success stage was.”