To say that Saturday’s Xfinity race from the Charlotte Roval was a rollercoaster of emotions would be an understatement. For a few brief shining moments, it seemed as if we would be presented with one of those “feel good” wins that we see so rarely. In a sport where it’s whoever has the almighty dollar that usually takes home the checkered flag, here was a truly heartwarming story being played out on the twists and turns of the track.
Parker Kligerman is, I suppose, what one might call a journeyman. He’d had rides in all three of NASCAR’s top series. He was basically on the outside looking in a few years ago, taking a pit road reporters job. Then a few Truck rides and a win at Talladega got him back in the Xfinity Series, driving for the underfunded Big Machine Racing.
To suggest his 2024 season was under the radar would be an understatement. He did enough to make the playoffs but entering the Charlotte Roval, he was so far under the cutoff line that he was in a must-win situation. At the same time, approximately a month ago, Kligerman announced that he was stepping away from full-time racing at the end of the season.
No one expected Parker Kligerman to beat the JGRs, the RCRs, the Kauligs, and the JRMs and win the championship. There are some Cinderella stories that just don’t come true no matter how much we want them to. But when he took the lead at the Roval with a handful laps to go, it seemed like there was a reason to – at least for a moment – suspend your disbelief.
Maybe, just maybe, we could belief that Kligerman was going to get his first Xfinity win and advance in the playoffs. However, it wasn’t going to be easy. Sam Mayer, driving for JR Motorsports and with a Charlotte Roval win on his resume, was coming ever so closer to catching Kligerman.
Even someone who didn’t follow NASCAR had to understand what we were on the verge of seeing. This was a true underdog story that was about to be played out on the Charlotte Roval. For a sport that is often accused of manufacturing drama and storylines with the playoffs, stage racing and overtime (all of which I am in favour of, by the way), this was a story that didn’t need any manufacturing. It was going to be one for the ages.
And then, suddenly, it all went away. Instead of a storybook finish, we were left with more controversy. The Blue Checkmark Brigade may accuse NASCAR fans of doing nothing but complain but on this occasion, we fans have every right to be upset.
When Leland Honeyman’s car ended up all but embedded into one of the tire barriers as Kligerman – putting adequate distance between himself and Mayer – approached the start-finish line, the feel-good story began to unravel. Kligerman’s crew chief or spotter yelled at his driver to “Get to the white! Get to the white!”
The rule is that once the leader (Kligerman) sees the white flag, the next flag will end the race. Not the next light. The next FLAG. Parker Kligerman drove under the white flag with the lead. I should know because once I saw Kligerman drive under the white flag, my immediate thought was “Okay, you can throw the caution now!”
And with that, the CW broadcast chyron went from green to yellow. The caution had come out! Parker Kligerman had recorded his first Xfinity win and would advance in the playoffs!
Except…the broadcast kept showing that there were still 3 laps to go (which would mean one pace lap and two laps of overtime). Then came the word that the race would go to overtime.
Why?
The caution light had waved before Kligerman crossed the start-finish line. Five feet. Six one-hundredths of a second.
In a year where NASCAR can brag (and rightfully so) about how many close finishes it’s had, perhaps the most damning one was the photo finish between Parker Kligerman and the caution light.
Almost immediately, fans took to social media to express their displeasure. The Honeyman wreck had been shown on TV and even on the video screens around the track. Obviously the teams on pit road knew of the wreck because one of them (whether it was his crew chief or his spotter) was telling Kligerman to get back to the start-finish line before they threw the caution. And yet, NASCAR claimed they initially didn’t see the wreck and that was the reason for the delay.
Give Kligerman and his team a lot of credit. They put their disappointment aside and refocused as best they could. There had been at least one previous instance where the caution had been called as the lead driver was mere feet away from the start-finish line. The 2023 All-Star Race. Ryan Blaney had taken what he thought was the white flag and then the caution came out. He thought he’d won the All-Star Race going so far as to take his window net down.
When Blaney heard the news – and once he got the window net back up – he refocused and went on to win the All-Star Race and the $1 million pay cheque. Unfortunately, the same scenario did not play out for Kligerman. He gave Mayer a good run and for a moment it looked like just maybe…
Instead, Kligerman had to settle not even for second but for sixth as Mayer went on to win the race and advance in the playoffs.
Great if you are a Sam Mayer fan (which I am not) or a JR Motorsports fan (which I am). But as an overall NASCAR fan?
This is a bad look for NASCAR. It looks like NASCAR officials were guilty of incompetence and then doing some mental gymnastics to cover their tracks. The sequence of events should have been the caution coming out, THEN the TV coverage finding Honeycutt’s wreck and saying that was the reason for the caution.
I’m not going to go so far as to say that NASCAR wanted Sam Mayer to win because he drives for JR Motorsports which has an alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, which is among the biggest teams in the sport.
I saw a lot of people voice their disappointments on social media stories about Sam Mayer, who came into the Roval one spot above Kligerman in the standings and equally needing a win, did nothing wrong. He didn’t wreck Kligerman to gain the lead. He simply ran his race and did what he needed to do for his season and his career. I will say that if Sam Mayer wins the 2024 Xfinity Series Championship, somewhere in the back of his mind (and many people’s minds), one has to think what might have been if Honeycutt hadn’t slammed into the tire barrier and – eventually – brought out the caution.
After the race, Kligerman talked about how he’d wanted to cry on the last lap, how he felt gutted. Who can blame him? Everyone who watched the race and was cheering for Kligerman felt the same way.
But Kligerman’s chances for the win fell away the minute Honeycutt’s car wrecked. He’d had some distance between him and Mayer – who had some issues late in the race. Kligerman was doing the best he could in the equipment he had. Side by side, however…well, we say the results.
As I said earlier, NASCAR is a sport where it seems like money talks and everyone else has to walk. It’s a sport where the best – whether it’s a driver, a crew chief, a pit crew member, an engineer, etc. end up at the teams with the most money. Each year, the media that covers NASCAR talk about how many winners they’ve had, especially in the Cup Series. The problem is that, for the most part, the winners are all from the same teams: Gibbs (and it’s 23XI affiliate), Penske, Hendrick. Yes, Trackhouse, RFK Racing and RCR grab a few wins as well. The Wood Brothers pulled off a sentimental win at Daytona with Harrison Burton.
But the #21 team was the last real win by a small team that NASCAR has enjoyed.
A win by an underdog would have done wonders for NASCAR. It would have given them a feel-good story they could have milked for years.
And they did nothing wrong in calling the caution. They simply did it too late and then made the situation worse by calling it just as the lead car took the white flag. In doing so, NASCAR robbed its fans and itself of a win it so richly deserves and needs right now.
johnmilner.ca 