Parker Kligerman racing at “The Lady in Black” (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
DARLINGTON, S.C. – After the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200, Parker Kligerman now sits one point below the cutline to make it into the NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoffs while Riley Herbst sits one point above the cutoff line.
Coming into the Darlington race weekend, Kligerman was the last driver in the Playoffs, sitting 20 points above the Playoff cutline, while Herbst pursued the 12th and final Playoff spot. The weekend started similarly for both drivers, with Kligerman qualifying 13th while Herbst qualified 15th.
Kligerman finished Stage 1 in 12th and secured an 11th place Stage 2 finish. However, contact between Kligerman and Sam Mayer on Lap 142 led to Kligerman finishing the race in the 24th position.
Herbst, on the other hand, claimed a 10th place Stage 1 finish along with a ninth place Stage 2 finish. He was able to gain more track position in the final sage, and secure a sixth place finish.
Kligerman talked about his frustration with Mayer in the No. 1 car after the race, and how hard he felt his team had worked before the caution.
“I feel like we probably had about a 10th place car,” Kligerman said. “I’m proud of the way we executed this weekend, and even without having a loose wheel, to come back from that and have to make a bunch of adjustments and then just get flat run over by the 1 car (Mayer).”
“I mean it’s just so disappointing. Sam’s a friend of the team, his dad is too, I know he’s won races but he just does dumb stuff like that all the time. I don’t know what the reasoning is but he’s gotta clean it up. Hey, we’re gonna keep it interesting right?”
In a contrast of emotions, Herbst spoke after the race about how he wished he had won the race and where he feels he and his team stand compared to the top five drivers in the Xfinity Series Playoffs.
“It’s just frustrating,” Herbst said. “I don’t think we had a good enough car here to win today, and that’s our ultimate goal is to come here and win races. So, that playoff stuff is cool, but like I was telling Davin (Restivo) and (Greg) Zipadelli, I really want to win races and I want to win them now so we have some work to do to find some speed compared to the top five.”
“I felt like we maybe had a fifth place car here today. But we’ll take this Monster Energy car and move on to Kansas and continue to do what we did today and just execute. Run every lap, be there at the end and see where the chips fall.”
