Parker Kligerman dominates Mid-Ohio Trucks

Parker Kligerman is quite well-versed at road course racing, having worked as an IMSA analyst and is the part-owner of Lime Rock Park. Yet it wasn’t until Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series inaugural race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course that he could finally call himself a NASCAR road course winner.

Kligerman led all but eleven of the sixty-seven laps and won the first stage to score his third career Truck win. Despite facing a challenge from Stage #2 winner Zane Smith, who won the first road race of 2022 at COTA, Kligerman took the lead on the final restart with three laps remaining and never looked back. It is his first NASCAR national series win on a road course, third of his Truck career and first not at Talladega (2012 and 2017), and second road victory in a stock car after 2016’s New Jersey Motorsports Park round in the now-ARCA Menards Series.

While the win does not lock him into the playoffs as he and Henderson Motorsports are only doing thirteen of twenty-three races, both parties are hopeful on translating the victory into a potential full-time campaign in the future. With the three road courses out of the way, his next start is Indianapolis on 29 July; Kligerman finished nineteenth and seventh at COTA and Sonoma, respectively. In seven career Truck road races, he scored top tens in all but two.

“This is the biggest win of my life,” Kligerman wrote in a thank-you post on /r/NASCAR. “Hopefully it can be the momentum we need to get to do it on a weekly basis as many of you have said. In the meantime we have a couple more races to win this year”.

Preceding the race was a especially chaotic qualifying session as multiple trucks spun in wet conditions, which forced NASCAR to cancel the third and final round of qualifying in favour of simply taking the best time from either Rounds #1 or #2. Pole winner Corey Heim, piloting the #51 truck that Kyle Busch drove to victory in the second road course event at Sonoma, suffered a failed transmission after sixty laps. Truck newcomers Connor Mosack, Trey Burke, and Mason Filippi also retired from the race, as did Justin Marks in his first NASCAR start since 2018. Conversely, NASCAR débutants and Reaume Brothers Racing team-mates Stephen Mallozzi and Kenkō Miura were able to reach the finish in twenty-second and thirty-third, respectively.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	75	Parker Kligerman	Henderson Motorsports	Chevrolet	67	Running
2	13	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	67	Running
3	3	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	67	Running
4	19	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	67	Running
5	20	98	Christian Eckes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	67	Running
6	31	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	67	Running
7	17	02	Kaz Grala	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	67	Running
8	23	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	67	Running
9	30	91	Colby Howard	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	67	Running
10	28	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	67	Running
11	12	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	67	Running
12	21	66	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	67	Running
13	22	61	Chase Purdy	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	67	Running
14	14	22	Austin Wayne Self	AM Racing	Chevrolet	67	Running
15	10	17	Taylor Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	67	Running
16	35	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	67	Running
17	34	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	67	Running
18	5	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	67	Running
19	6	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	67	Running
20	16	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	67	Running
21	7	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	67	Running
22	36	43	Stephen Mallozzi	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	67	Running
23	15	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	66	Running
24	27	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	66	Running
25	33	44	Kris Wright	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	65	Accident
26	1	51	Corey Heim	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	60	Transmission
27	29	40	Dean Thompson	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	60	Running
28	4	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	57	Running
29	26	24	Jack Wood	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	54	Accident
30	25	9	Blaine Perkins	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	54	Accident
31	8	41	Justin Marks	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	49	Accident
32	9	7	Dylan Lupton	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	47	Accident
33	32	33	Kenko Miura	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	42	Running
34	11	32	Connor Mosack	Bret Holmes Racing	Chevrolet	37	Brakes
35	18	20	Trey Burke	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	16	Rear Gear
36	24	46	Mason Filippi	G2g Racing	Toyota	9	Engine

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points