Pocono
Parker Kligerman and the Spiked Light Coolers No. 48 was P10 in practice, started the race in the P22 position and finished ninth in the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 at Pocono Raceway.
Austin Hill survived an early race pit road speeding penalty, gambled on fuel strategy and won his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the season.
Both Josh Berry and his teammate Justin Allgaier hit the wall in separate accidents on the final lap bringing out the yellow flag and the race ended under caution.
Riley Herbst finished fourth, also coming out on the right side of a fuel-save gamble. The effort was good enough to keep Herbst in the points picture for the championship. He is 26 points ahead of Parker for the final Playoff transfer position with seven races remaining to set the 12-driver championship field.
Up next… the Henry 180 Saturday, July 29 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. See it on NBC or Peacock at 3:00 p.m. eastern. Listen on Sirius XM Channel 90 and MRN affiliates. Click here for the station near you.
Overview
Event: Explore The Pocono Mountains 225
Date: Saturday July 22, 2023
Time: 5:30 p.m. eastern
Location: Pocono Raceway 1234 Long Pond Road, Long Pond, Pennsylvania 18334
Layout: 2.5 mile asphalt Triangle Oval “The Tricky Triangle”
Laps: 90 Laps
Miles: 225 Miles
Stage Lengths: Stage 1 ends on lap 20, stage 2 ends on lap 40 and the final stage ends on lap 90.
TV: USA Network
Radio: Sirius XM Channel 90 and MRN affiliates. Click here for the station near you.
“Although the result in New Hampshire wasn’t what we wanted,” says Parker Kligerman, “There were a lot of positives for us as a team that will continue to pay dividends.”
“I’m really looking forward to this weekend at Pocono, which is one of my favorite tracks in all of NASCAR and the closest race to where I grew up and live in Connecticut.”
“This race track is such an experience for us drivers, as each corner is its own unique challenge. I love racing here and can’t wait to continue to show how we are improving as a team. I’m confident we are on a real upswing!”
Driver Points: 439, ranked #12
Thanks to Scott Walsh from the Times-Tribune for chatting with Parker Kligerman... Here’s the story:
Pocono Raceway always has held special meaning for Parker Kligerman.
A Connecticut native and resident, he considers the 2.5-mile triangular track in Long Pond his home track. It also is the first place he saw a NASCAR stock car in person in 2007.
“I was transitioning out of the open-wheel world and I had an opportunity to meet with an ARCA team,” Kligerman said. “I showed up there Saturday morning and I was coming through the tunnel and the first car I saw was the No. 31 car for Jeff Burton. I remember thinking, ‘Whoa, that’s cool. I want to do that.’ ”
Kligerman is doing that. Again.
For the first time since 2013, the 32-year-old driver is running a full NASCAR season, driving the No. 48 Chevrolet for Big Machine Racing in the Xfinity Series. He will compete in the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Pocono.
Also, he will be in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series CRC Brakleen 150 on Saturday at noon in the Henderson Motorsports No. 75 Chevrolet, a team he drives for on a limited basis.
Then Sunday, during the NASCAR Cup Series HighPoint.com 400, Kligerman will perform his role as pit road reporter for NBC Sports.
“Driving in Xfinity at this level is a seven-day-a-week job,” Kligerman said. “Add in Trucks, it’s a 7½ day-a-week job. Then TV, it’s an eight day-a-week job. So it’s a lot.
“But I’m lucky to have the chance to balance it all. I don’t feel overwhelmed in any way. It’s cool. I have to remind myself at times, when I’m down or we had a bad weekend, that all you wanted was a chance to be in this position. So bring it on.”
Overall in his NASCAR career, Kligerman has made 30 Cup Series starts, 74 Xfinity Series starts and 114 Truck Series starts. He has three wins in the Trucks Series, the last of which came at Mid-Ohio in July 2022.
While he was celebrating in Victory Lane, he got a call from Big Machine Racing team manager Keith Barnwell with an offer to drive the team’s car at Talladega in the fall. Kligerman finished sixth in that race and a few weeks later, he was named the full-time driver for 2023.
“We’ve done great things as a young race team; this is only the third year of existence for this team and the second year of its partnership with RCR (Richard Childress Racing),” Kligerman said. “We’ve kind of done what’s expected of us. Barring two mechanical failures, we would be firmly in the playoffs right now. We’ve been contending for multiple wins. We just haven’t broken through.
“Overall, I think it’s a B+ and we’re only getting better. There’s a lot of internal stuff that we’ve worked on the last few months and we’re starting to see the payoff from it. As a team, we’re gelling and I think there’s a huge upside for us.”
Obviously, the easiest way for Kligerman to qualify for the Xfinity playoffs is to win one of the eight remaining races. He believes there are four or five tracks for a potential victory to happen, Pocono being one of them.
He ran two ARCA Series races there in 2009 and finished sixth and 21st. He also has three Trucks Series starts with finishes of 13th in 2011, seventh in 2012 and 15th in 2020.
“I’ve loved this race track for a long time,” Kligerman said. “Every time I’ve run there, I’ve run well because I really enjoy it.
“A driver can make a big difference there. Because it’s three different corners, because you have to compromise how you have to set up the car, the driver has a huge influence on performance on a race track like this. So if I’m half the driver I think I am, I can make a difference there in our results and be a big part of that equation. Every time I’ve run there, I’ve been able to find a little something. I feel like it’s a place that you go with a positive mental attitude and as a driver make a difference in the three corners. Plus, you put a lap together there, it’s a thrill. You’re like, man, that was awesome! How’d I do that?”
In 2014, Kligerman began working as an analyst and pit reporter for NBC Sports. Ironically, that day in 2007 when he first came to Pocono and saw Burton’s car, he now works on telecasts together with Burton.
His job in television, he feels, has helped him become a better driver.
“When you’re coming through the ranks as a young driver, you are focused on one thing and one thing only — your performance, your team, your perception. It’s all about you,” Kligerman said. “You go to the broadcast side and suddenly you’ve got to focus across the entire sport. The bigger picture, the 30,000-foot view. You have to know the stories and the ins and outs of every single competitor. You have to have the knowledge and the research done. When you do that, it gives you an entirely different perspective of the sport. So in a lot of ways, it’s beneficial to me as a driver because it made me sort of calm down, see the bigger picture, understand what is and isn’t important. I think it’s been the secret sauce to my resurgence and ability to get this full-time ride with Big Machine Racing.”
Pocono Raceway is a relatively new track on the Xfinity Series schedule, having only hosted seven races. There has been seven different race winners and four different pole winners. Only one race has been won from the pole position – Cole Custer in 2019.
Erik Jones set the qualifying record at the track in 2016 with a speed of 175.926 mph and Brad Keselowski set the race record in 2017 with a speed of 135.583 mph.
Amongst those entered this weekend, Justin Allgaier, Jeremy Clements, Ryan Sieg and Brandon Jones are the only full-time Xfinity Series drivers that have made every start at the track and will make their eighth start at the track this weekend.
NASCAR Xfinity drivers will kick off with practice on Friday, July 21 at 3:35 p.m. ET followed by Pole Qualifying at 4:05 p.m. ET on the USA Network and streamed on the NBC Sports App.
Will the Xfinity Series different winners streak at Pocono Raceway continue?
It appears no one has been able to conquer the Tricky Triangle more than once as Pocono Raceway has yet to see a repeat winner in Victory Lane. Only one of the seven former winners will have the opportunity to break the streak, Cole Custer, as he is the only previous winner entered in this weekend’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 (Saturday, July 22 at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, the NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The three-turn, 2.5-mile paved Pocono Raceway has seen a different driver in Victory Lane every year since Kyle Larson won the inaugural event in 2016. Since then, Brad Keselowski (2017), Kyle Busch (2018), Cole Custer (2019), Chase Briscoe (2020), Austin Cindric (2021) and Noah Gragson (2022) have all hoisted a trophy in the famed Victory Lane.
Custer heads into the weekend with four Pocono starts under his belt, posting one win (2019), two top fives and four top 10s. Although he has done well in all of his starts, they don’t call Pocono Raceway the Tricky Triangle for nothing, and he will have his work cut out for him if he plans to become the track’s first repeat winner in the Xfinity Series.
One driver striving to keep the streak alive is JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier. The 37-year-old driver has proved he has speed on the 2.5-mile track, snagging the pole in last year’s race. In his seven starts, he’s posted two top fives and four top 10s.
Kaulig Racing’s Daniel Hemric is another driver who is sure to push to keep the Pocono different winners streak alive this weekend and break his own 51-race winless streak (his last win was the Championship Race in Phoenix in 2021). In his five starts at the Tricky Triangle, he’s posted one top-five and four top-10 finishes.
Last season, the JR Motorsports team, which consisted of Noah Gragson, Justin Allgaier, Josh Berry, and Sam Mayer, was one to be reckoned with, winning 14 of the 33 races (42.4%) on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule. This season, it seems that the team, which includes Justin Allgaier, Josh Berry, Sam Mayer and Brandon Jones, is having some trouble finding their footing and landing in Victory Lane, having only recorded one win thus far (Justin Allgaier – Charlotte). But their luck might turn around this weekend as the drivers have performed well at the track in their respective starts.
Allgaier has posted two top fives and four top 10s in his seven starts. He’s come extremely close to tasting victory at the 2.5-mile track, finishing runner-up in 2017.
Berry doesn’t have quite the experience that Allgaier has at Pocono Raceway but has proved his skill at the track. In his track debut in 2021, he raced his way up to a ninth-place finish after starting in the 33rd position and last season, he finished in third.
Like Berry, Mayer is still new to racing at the three-turn track. In his first year running in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on a part time schedule (2021), he posted an 18th-place finish then came back last season with a little more experience under his belt and finished sixth.
Jones is still figuring out how to conquer the Tricky Triangle. In his seven starts, he’s posted two top 10s (best finish of seventh in 2021).
NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs Standings: Five spots still sit open with eight to go
With yet another win by Joe Gibb’s Racing’s John Hunter Nemechek last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, his fourth of the season, drivers now have eight opportunities to snag one of the five remaining Playoff spots.
The following seven drivers have already earned their spot in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs by virtue of their wins: John Hunter Nemechek, Austin Hill, Cole Custer, Justin Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith and Jeb Burton.
Currently in the eighth spot in the Playoff outlook is JR Motorsport’s Josh Berry, who made it the Championship 4 Round of the Playoffs last season. Berry has posted seven top fives and 11 top 10s this season thus far and is currently 105 points above the postseason cutline. Berry has made two starts at Pocono in the Xfinity Series posting one top five and two top 10s.
Kaulig Racing’s Daniel Hemric moved up a slot in the standings after posting a top five-finish last weekend at New Hampshire. He is now in the ninth spot, up +71 points on Parker Kligerman in the first spot outside the Playoff cutoff (13th). The 2021 Xfinity Series champion has put up three top fives and 10 top 10s this season, and if he can hold on to a postseason spot, he will look to make the Playoffs for the fifth time in his career (2017-18 and 2012-22).
Richard Childress Racing’s Sheldon Creed slides into the 10th position in the Playoff outlook, up +45 points on the postseason cutline. This season, he has collected two top fives, six top 10s and a pole in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The 25-year-old has only made one start at Pocono Raceway, posting a fifth-place finish.
JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer, now sitting in the 11th spot in the Playoff outlook, is +63 points above the cutline. He’s made two starts at the Tricky Triangle, posting one top 10-finish.
Sitting in the final transfer spot on points (12th) in the Playoff outlook is Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst, who is still on the hunt for his first win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He’s made three starts at Pocono with a best finish of ninth (2020).
Parker Kligerman, who is right below the cutline, sits 18 points back from Herbst.