In 2009, Parker Kligerman burst onto the NASCAR scene as the next big thing. He was a 19-year-old development driver for powerhouse team Penske Racing and a competitor in the ARCA Series, a developmental step on the NASCAR ladder. He won nine of 21 ARCA starts in his rookie year, and he thought: “This is easy.”
“I like to say if ARCA was Cup, I'd have a private jet,” Kligerman said. “But that's not the case."
Fifteen years later — as in, last Thursday — Kligerman announced that he’s retiring from his full-time racing career. Kligerman’s currently racing in the second-tier NASCAR Xfinity Series with Big Machine Racing, a team owned by record executive Scott Borchetta, but he's had more than a hundred starts in Truck series and 30 in Cup. As his opportunities in the sport evolved, so has the way he looked at being a pro driver.
