Rookie of the Year candidate may be the uttered phrase of the 2014 season as a tremendous amount of first year drivers entered the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with a wide array of personalities. And no driver defines personality in stock car racing quite like Parker Kligerman an affable and gregarious driver with a knack for both self-promotion and entrepreneurship.

All told, in an era where drivers have become increasingly one-dimensional, Kligerman is an example of a sports personality who has his fingerprints on many different enterprises while hoping to leave his biggest mark on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.


Name: Parker Kligerman

Born: August 8, 1990

Hometown: Westport, Connecticut

Team: Free Agent

Height: 5'9

Weight: 140

Hobbies: Music , Sim Racing, Outdoor Life, Working Out, Netflix

Previous Teams: None

Sprint Cup Victories: Zero

Background: Parker was just nine years old when he first came across the SPEED Channel and decided that he wanted to become a race car driver, especially given his preexisting love for cars, especially Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Toyotas. So he took up karting near his home in Westport, Connecticut at the age of 13.

At the time, he was driving two-stroke go karts and honed his skills in preparation for the next level. That next level was the Skip Barber Racing Series at 15-years-old and won all three races in which he entered showing the skillset needed to continue on into open-wheel racing.

By 2006, Kligerman had won the Formula TR Pro Series 1600 class title, winning a remarkable 11 of 14 races that season and finished second in all the races in which he had not won. It was at this point that Kligerman jumped to United States Auto Club midget racing posting three top-5s and six top-10s in the Illinois State Midget Championship which was sanctioned by USAC.

Like many who have pursued USAC in recent years, Kligerman’s open-wheel career eventually led him to stock cars in the ARCA Racing Series as a development driver for Team Penske and Dodge with their off-shoot program -- Cunningham  Motorsports in 2008. He did this while also continuing his Midget Racing career.

By 2009, Kligerman had advanced to the ARCA Series full-time and started to display the same execution in a stock car that he had in Open-Wheel and Skip Barber. He won nine races and came up five points short of winning the championship to Justin Lofton, who won six races but had stronger consistency.  He also made his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut that season at Kansas and won the pole.

Nationwide and Trucks:

In 2010, Kligerman made 12 starts for Penske and Dodge related programs and just acclimated to fasters cars and competing against Sprint Cup teams and drivers.

His most success came in 2012 where he finished fifth in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, splitting his time between Brad Keselowski Racing and Red Horse Racing. He won the fall race at Talladega Superspeedway capitalizing on a tough situation when he had been let go from the Dodge-based organization.

The following season saw Kligerman establish a relationship with Toyota and Kyle Busch Motorsports in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He finished ninth in the final standings after successfully navigating all 33 races on the schedule. With that accomplished knocked off the mantle, Kligerman pursued a career in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Sprint Cup:

Kligerman joined the Swan Racing Team in 2014, hoping to earn Rookie of the Year honors driving for the No. 30 team as a 23-year-old. Instead the season was disasters from the start as Kligerman endure several accidents including a first-lapper at Martinsville Speedway that left him mired deep in the standings. Swan Racing later shut down in the summer leaving he and teammate Cole Whitt out of a ride.

Whitt landed at BK Racing while Kligerman was left without a ride.

Future:

Kligerman is still hopeful to return to the Sprint Cup Series but has initiated talks with teams in several other racing disciplines should nothing materialize. He was in Indianapolis for the Indy 500 race weekend talking to several teams about the possibility of joining the IndyCar Series at some point, fulfilling an open-wheel dream.

He has also looked into the possibility of joining several rally cross and sports car teams, including the TUDOR World United Sports Car Championship.

Between his social media and fan engagement prowess and undeniable talent, there is still a great possibility that Parker Kligerman may still someday achieve his dream and become a perennial winner in the highest level of motorsports, be in stock cars, open-wheel, sports car or any number of racing organizations.