A lot can happen in one second. On Saturday, (Oct. 12) Parker Kligerman experienced that reality in the most excruciating way. The collective pain of Kligerman and NASCAR fans worldwide could’ve — and should’ve — been avoided.
Kligerman was robbed of his first Xfinity Series win, which would’ve advanced him into the next round of the playoffs and kept his championship run alive. There are at least two ways this incident could’ve been handled by race control that would’ve been superior to what unfolded.
Throughout the weekend, Kligerman didn’t have the speed of eventual race winner Sam Mayer or heavy favorite Shane van Gisbergen, but what he lacked in raw speed he gained in grit and execution. Kligerman started last among the playoff drivers, in 22nd. With nine laps remainig, Kligerman overtook SVG for the lead on fresher tires and tried like hell to get away.
On the second-to-last lap, Kligerman continued to hold off the charging Mayer, who had made several attempts to get around the No. 48. Coming to the white flag, Kligerman appeared to cross the start finish line just before a caution came out for Leland Honeyman, who had suffered a flat tire and got buried by the tire barrier.
Now, a caution one second after taking the white flag wouldn’t be an ideal way to finish a race, but it’s so much better than what happened next. The CW booth thought it was a done deal. Kligerman had taken the white, and with caution coming out, he was going to win as long as he could ease the car back to the line.
“Before the caution came out, it looks as through the white was in the air,” Rick Allen said on the broadcast. “He crossed the start finish line, and that would mean Parker Kligerman wins his first Xfinity Series race!”
Steve Letarte then attempted to dissect the evidence, and did not improve the situation in his effort.
“I don’t see a caution light,” he said. “… Still no caution light, he’s clearly over the line, caution light comes on.”
Letarte then seemed to try to rationalize the call that was being made and couldn’t even believe what was coming out of his own mouth.
“This is gonna sound crazy,” Letarte said. “There is a delay between hitting the button and [when] the lights come on. It’s in the hundredths of a second, but this comes down to electronics for NASCAR.”
I’m not here to analyze the exact moment someone in the tower pressed a button and whether it was — or was not — before Kligerman crossed the line. The first point is, there is no way in the world it should’ve ever been that close of a call.
When Honeyman had his incident, there were still a few cars yet to pass him on track. He wasn’t running last when it happened. The race had just restarted a few laps prior. So by the time those stragglers got past his wreck, the next car that could’ve posed a safety threat would’ve been … Kligerman, closely followed by Mayer.
Once the back of the field had already passed Honeyman and no caution had been waved, there was no obvious need to throw the caution until after the leaders had already taken the white. Where Honeyman was stopped on the track, there would’ve been plenty of distance, approximately half a mile, before the leaders would’ve approached his car.
NASCAR has timing and scoring that is much closer to real-time telemetry compared to what we see by the time the TV broadcast gets around to showing an incident, and yet, the CW production team showed Honeyman stopped on track a full 18 seconds before Kligerman took the white. It’s reasonable to believe Honeyman had been there for several seconds before the TV cameras showed him on the broadcast.
For purpose of argument, let’s say he sat there for 30 seconds before the caution came out. If you’ve already waited that long, why in the world couldn’t you wait one more second to throw the yellow?
What was gained in any area by throwing the caution when it was thrown? An overtime finish. Anything else? A JR Motorsports car in the playoffs instead of a Big Machine Racing car. Anything else? Not really. We already had a stellar race for the win. Mayer had one of the best, if not the best, car all weekend. He had reached Kligerman’s rear bumper a few times in that final run and could not make the pass.
With one second of difference having virtually no bearing on safety in this situation, what entertainment benefit came for the unnecessary overtime? Instead of a highly-liked underdog in his final season keeping his dream alive by earning a win, we got the same winner in this race as last season.
Make no mistake, Kligerman earned a win. In what should’ve been the last restart with 11 to go, he was on the third row. He got around Austin Green and Jesse Love quickly while gaining separation between himself and Mayer, who was sure to be in tow. Kligerman then made relatively quick work of the odds-on favorite to win, van Gisbergen, and took the lead with 9 laps to go.
This is nothing against Mayer. He had a heck of a weekend. He raced very clean with Kligerman for a win he needed to stay alive. It was likely the most mature and skillful driving performance we’ve seen from the Franklin, Wis., native. With 4 laps to go, Mayer actually took the lead briefly in the frontstretch chicane, but Kligerman got a better exit and retook the lead as quickly as he lost it.
Mayer then experienced a delay in getting up through the gears on the backstretch and Kligerman extended his lead enough to hold on until the end in regulation, but it would’ve been very close. Had Honeyman not got into that tire barrier, we likely would’ve seen an instant-classic finish that put a perfect exclamation point on what had been nothing short of a classic battle from the moment of the restart with 11 to go.
While Kligerman and Mayer were duking it out, AJ Allmendinger looked on, also within striking distance. The ‘Dinger was going to safely advance to the next round on points, which likely led to a more conservative approach. Had things gone awry between the top two, we’d have quickly seen a three-way battle for the win. Old tires and all, van Gisbergen wasn’t far behind Allmendinger.
What would a win for Kligerman have meant?
“I love this game and I really wanted it,” Kligerman said. “I wanted to keep going in the playoffs.
“I just felt like that was poetic. If I could just do one thing, it would’ve been winning this damn race in that fashion. Holding off some of the best in the world in SVG and AJ, Sam Mayer is who is the ROVAL master now. I thought I was driving at the highest level I’ve ever driven and … I didn’t get it done.”
What more needs to be said? It didn’t have to be this way.
He’s already announced he won’t be racing full-time next year. He’s already got 118 winless Xfinity starts under his belt. If he had won, its reasonable to say he could’ve advanced all the way to the championship race. Once he got there, who knows? He would’ve remained an underdog for sure, but he could’ve realistically become a champion in this playoff format. Then what kind of offer might he have received from a team or sponsor to drive their cars full-time next season? Maybe one he couldn’t refuse. If NASCAR hits the caution button a second later, it would’ve changed everything for the 34-year-old journeyman from Westport, Conn.
If Mayer goes on to win the championship, by no fault of his own, it will always be looked back at with disdain. Fans will remember how a highly questionable call by NASCAR allowed him to get out of the first round. He still had to beat Kligerman on that overtime restart, so give him credit, but the restart never should’ve happened.
NASCAR could’ve made a still wrong, but less painful, decision by throwing the caution much more quickly than they did. What were they waiting for in those 18 seconds between the time TV showed Honeyman’s wreck and the moment of caution? A quick trigger on the caution would’ve helped with the optics, but once they lagged on their decision, the right call was to wait until the leaders had crossed the start-finish line.
Elton Sawyer, Vice President of Competition at NASCAR, had the following to say about the untimely caution call when he appeared on SiriusXM.
“It did take too long,” Sawyer said. “I met with our team in the tower after the race Saturday night. We went through what happened there. We made some adjustments overnight as far as camera angles so that our replay operator could get to that to be able to see that quicker to be able to get that information to the race director.
“So, we made an adjustment over Saturday night. Felt like we were in a much better place on Sunday. Again, it’s a call that we wanted to get to quicker, but you got to have the information. You got to have the view to be able to do that. And felt like we made that correction overnight on Saturday.”
I would’ve pushed back on Sawyer and asked why when they they already waited as long as they did, why not just let the leader take the white? That is the part that will continue to grind gears for many.
Kligerman wasn’t the only one robbed by this unfortunate sequence of events. Fans were robbed, too. Unless you’re a Mayer fan, you were probably pretty upset about what happened. Instead of an epic underdog win through sheer grit and skill in a classic battle to the finish among a quartet of drivers putting on a hell of a show, we got something we’ve seen so many times before. An overtime finish and a JR Motorsports car going to victory lane, eliminating the championship hopes of Kligerman in the process.
Let’s end on a high note here. The Xfinity race at the ROVAL was incredible. I’d argue it was far superior to its Cup counterpart, as is often the case. The on-track product in this series remains the best in motorsports.
If unfortunate and unnecessary calls by race control can be avoided in the future, learning from this ordeal, we’ll really be on to something special.
Steve Leffew joined Frontstretch in 2023 and covers the Xfinity Series. He has served honorably in the United States Air Force and and lives in Wisconsin.
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100% agree with the writer here. I’m not one who gets into conspiracy theories, and oftentimes feel they are a bit silly. But in this case, it seems nearly 100% clear the caution was thrown to ensure maximum drama.
I don’t have any particular attachment to either driver…I was just enjoying a good race with very high stakes at the end. NASCAR cheapened the result with how they chose to play their hand.
I’m also not one who enjoys trigger finger cautions, but in this case, it seems it should have been thrown immediately. The car was nearly completely under the tires, and window net or no, there was no way to know if the driver may have had an injury. Throw the caution, ensure the driver is safe. No fake drama, and you still get your GWC finish.
Yes, Klingerman got robbed by NASCAR. TV showed the car buried in the ires and basically out of the way. If it was there long enough for TV, it was there long enough for NASCAR to throw the flag earlier if they had wanted. They apparently didn’t want Parker to win. Ergo, the race was manipulated, Parker got screwed out of a win, and Jr/Hendrck win again. Gee, whod’a thunk it?