It seems like no matter what happens this year in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the No. 88 team from JR Motorsports can’t lose.
Driver gets hurt at Talladega Superspeedway? Replace him with a NASCAR Cup Series champion and win at Texas Motor Speedway. Crew chief gets suspended for a race at Pocono Raceway? Put the team owner on top of the box and win.
Driver falls out of his car celebrating a win, breaks his collarbone and gets meme’d into oblivion, and you have to throw a racer-turned-broadcaster in the car? Guess what! You still win.
And vice versa, Parker Kligerman can’t win.
Kligerman got the rug pulled out from under him at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL last season, having a caution thrown — pretty late, by the way — inches away from him taking the white flag. NASCAR waits one more second to throw the caution, and Kligerman has his first Xfinity Series win. Instead, he finished sixth and was eliminated from the playoffs in his last full-time season.
At Daytona International Speedway in February, in a one-off for Henderson Motorsports, Kligerman captured the “biggest win of my life” in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season opener at NASCAR’s most prestigious track. A few hours later, the win was taken away via a ride height disqualification, and he was instead placed 36th.
Redemption, even if marginally, came on Aug. 22 in the Wawa 250. Kligerman jumped in the No. 88 for an injured Connor Zilisch during stage one and took the car to the win at Daytona. There was no late caution to yank a win out of his grasp, and no disqualification to let the wind out of his sails. It will go down as probably the highlight of his career as a racer.
And according to the record books, Kligerman still can’t win. Per NASCAR rules, Zilisch is credited with his eighth career Xfinity win in just his 27th start.
It’s the first driver-swap win in NASCAR since 2007 when Aric Almirola won the pole and started for Denny Hamlin after travel issues delayed Hamlin’s arrival for an Xfinity race at the Milwaukee Mile. Hamlin didn’t want to make the swap. The team didn’t want to make the swap. But Rockwell Automation, Hamlin’s sponsor based in Milwaukee, made the call that Hamlin would get in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 to replace Almirola.
Almirola was nowhere to be seen when Hamlin took the checkered flag that earned him his first career NASCAR national series win. In the same way winning without winning was the crowning achievement of Kligerman’s career, earning his first win without getting to be in victory lane was probably the lowlight of Almirola’s early career.
In a sad bit of irony, Zilisch’s eight wins in Xfinity tie him all-time with Clint Bowyer, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray, Sam Mayer and, who else, Almirola.
Kligerman’s ‘win’ was a popular one in the industry, and he showed why post-race. He wasn’t all that caught up in the semantics of whether the win was his or not.
“I’m still going to get the checkered flag, I still get the check, and to do it with a guy [Dale Earnhardt Jr.] that younger me would have never thought I’d get to speak to him, let alone drive his racecars,” Kligerman told The CW. “It’s a dream come true.”
If Kligerman won’t ask the question, then others like Jeff Gluck of The Athletic will. It makes sense for only one driver, the starter, to earn points for a race, but what is stopping NASCAR from declaring a co-winner or rewarding both drivers with a win in the record books?
NASCAR has made a habit of rewriting the record books in recent years. Last October, the series awarded Bobby Allison a NASCAR Cup Series win in the disputed 1971 race at Bowman Gray Stadium. It wasn’t a throwaway gesture for Allison, who passed away just months later, either. It broke a tie between Allison and Darrell Waltrip for fourth-most wins in Cup history at 84.
It would also matter in both instances in the Xfinity Series. Sure, Kligerman finally gets an official win on his resume, but it matters to Hamlin’s legacy, too. Hamlin — who did his part at Milwaukee by fighting back from a lap down to win on scuff tires — is 12th all-time for national series wins with 78 wins combined between Cup, Xfinity and Trucks.
To tie Jimmie Johnson for 10th, he would need six more wins. If he keeps going further, he could reach the territory of the likes of Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt and the aforementioned Waltrip. That one race would suddenly carry quite a bit of weight in the record books.
Zilisch’s and Almirola’s contribution to the team success — which I’ve been told is what NASCAR is about compared to drivers’ success — shouldn’t be wiped out. So let them keep their share of the win and tack on Hamlin and Kligerman.
Hopefully, Kligerman’s contribution to an unbelievable season by JR Motorsports spurs further discussion by NASCAR. In one way, Kligerman has already changed things.
“It’s such a me thing that this will not be on Racing Reference at all,” Kligerman said.
Not so, at least not entirely. In the only case I could find in my time scouring Racing Reference, the race at Daytona includes a “RACE NOTES” section. It’s one line.
“Connor Zilisch with relief from Parker Kligerman.”
Congrats, Parker, you made it.
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a local sports reporter, including local short track racing. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with football, music, anime and video games.