The NASCAR Xfinity Series just concluded its penultimate regular season race at Watkins Glen International. Ahead of the race, Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman suddenly announced his retirement. This caught many by surprise since the NBC pit reporter cum race car driver is currently in his career’s top form. This announcement came after his P2 finish at the Atlanta track.

In his statement, he said, “I still hope to hop in a race car here and there, but for fun. Until then, my full focus is on winning a NASCAR Xfinity Series championship with Big Machine Racing.” The first step in competing for the championships is getting a playoff berth. In the Watkins Glen race, he faced massive problems. Yet, Kligerman managed to get one step closer to qualifying for a back-to-back playoff. And hopefully, fight for his first championship.

Parker Kligerman keeps playoff dreams alive

The race was won by Xfinity Series debutant and NASCAR prodigy Connor Zilisch. On the final restart, the road course master AJ Allmendinger fought for the lead as he went three wide from the third position. However, Zilisch came out as the winner of the battle and led the race. Soon after there was a crash in the mid-pack, bringing out the caution and forcing an overtime finish for the 18-year-old. In the race, Sheldon Creed took P2 and A. J. Allmendinger took 3rd place. In the race, Kligerman finished 7th.

However, the seventh-place finish for the BRM driver did not come easy. Since the 10th lap, his gearbox started failing, and he could not put the car in the fourth gear. It became a problem for him to hold his position because of a lack of speed. Reiterating this in a post-race interview, he said, “We didn’t have fourth gear like lap 10 so that was making it tougher down the backstretch to hold people off. and then so I had to be super defensive and do stupid stuff and like way overdrive the corner to try and hold the ball off.”

Technically, Kligerman only needed to go in the fourth gear at the backstretch, which is the fastest part of the track. Other than that, cars stayed in the third. This, however, wasn’t the only roadblock in his journey to 7th. Kligerman too suffered damage in the overtime crash at the end of the race. Riley Herbst spun on the final lap leading to a massive pileup. This collected many drivers including the #48

Explaining the chaos that unfolded on the track, Kligerman said, “On that last run there, the sun’s so low (and) the windshield is covered in oil and speedy dry. The two combined, I literally could not see a thing um so on that last deal into one when we were all like four of us were together SVG, AJ, the 81, 18  and me like couldn’t see anything. So I ran in the back of 8 and then someone ran in the back of me and shoved me in the wall and it was just chaos. But you know without that I think we could have gotten to the top three.”

Through the chaos, Kligerman kept his playoff hopes alive. After the Watkins race, the #48 driver has a comfortable cushion of +85 points above the cutoff line in the 11th position. Behind him in 12th and the final spot is Sammy Smith, who is +43 points above the cutoff line. So Kligeraman will be comfortable heading into Bristol, which is the final race of the regular season. This being the 34-year-old’s final season is surprising since it was only last year that he saw success in his Xfinity career. According to him, it just felt like the right decision.

Reasons are unclear for Kligerman’s sudden exit

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In the 2023 season, Parker Kligerman, although winless, showed tremendous consistency. In the 33 races, he had eight top 5s and eighteen top 10s. He ended his season in the 10th position with an average finish of 15.6. So far, he’s had 113 race starts in the Xfinity Series but has failed to bag a single win. Besides this, he’s also had some runs in the Cup and Truck Series but hasn’t won a single race. According to Kligerman, being winless in NASCAR is one reason for the exit.

He detailed that decision on his The Money Lap podcast with fellow racer and co-host Landon Cassill, where he said, “I just found myself thinking, ‘Okay I’ve done this, and I’ve not been nearly as successful as I wanted to be, of course.’ As I think about it now, I think I’ve done 257 and I’ve only won three so haven’t been as good as I’ve wanted to be but I think that just started to sit in my mind a little bit.” With the consistency, the #48 has shown recently, a win was just around the corner.

Further in the podcast, Parker Kligerman talks about wanting to explore the broadcasting industry more. He currently serves as an analyst for NBC’s weekday show “NASCAR America.” Besides this, he is also a pit reporter for select NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series races. “I think I’m ready for the next chapter. I don’t exactly know what that is right now. There’s a lot of opportunities on the TV side and that will be something I want to pursue and be a part of. I’m not really pressuring myself to figure that out.”

Only he knows what truly persuaded him to quit NASCAR. Do you think it was the correct decision after seeing his recent runs? Let us know in the comments below.