Catchfence

NASCAR rookie

will have twice the workload this weekend when he competes in both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series WinStar World Casino 350K, and the NASCAR Nationwide Series O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway.

The 20-year old Penske Development Driver from Westport, Connecticut will make his first appearance at Texas driving the #29 BKR Dodge Ram owned by his Penske Racing teammate, Brad Keselowski, as well as the Team 42 Dodge sponsored by getmorevacations.com and Bandit Chippers in the Nationwide Series race. Chris Carrier, who helped Kligerman to 9 wins and the Rookie of the Year title in last season’s ARCA Racing Series Championship, and who has been at the reigns of all of Kligerman’s 11 Nationwide starts, will also pull the double duty as crew chief on both the truck and Nationwide car this weekend.

Kligerman is looking forward to the challenge of doing two jobs in one weekend. “I feel it will be very beneficial doing double duty because as a rookie, seat time is so valuable. In a double duty weekend, you’re effectively getting twice the seat time to learn the track”.

Although this will be Kligerman’s first start in the Camping World Truck Series, he expects his truck owner, Brad Keselowski, will have high expectations from him and rightfully so. Kligerman qualified on the front row in his first ARCA race in 2008 at New Jersey Motorsports Park, and won the Coors Light Pole position in his first NASCAR Nationwide Series start at Kansas in 2009, finishing a strong 16th after leading the opening 7 laps.

“Having never driven a truck before, I really just need to keep an open mind going into this weekend” says Kligerman, “This way I won’t have any expectations and can focus fully on learning as much as I can and using that to my advantage come race time. With that said, I know Brad (Keselowski) is looking for a solid run and I hope to be able to make that happen”.

Kligerman will be making his 12th start in the NNS, yet it will be his first look at the challenging 1.5 mile Texas Motor Speedway. With his record of success on the mile and a half ovals throughout his career, it is a challenge he is certainly looking forward to. “From what I’ve seen and learned about TMS, it seems to be a unique race track. It is a mile and half, and ever since I had my first mile and a half start a little more than a year ago, I have really enjoyed this type of tracks. I feel they are the perfect mix of speed and handling that really makes it an exciting challenge for the crew and driver”.

“I want to thank Penske Racing for the support and continued opportunities they have given me over the last year and half”, says Kligerman, who has had a variety of finishes this season highlighted by top tens at Bristol and Montreal, as well as a front row starting position at Daytona in the first superspeedway race for the new Nationwide COT. “I would like to thank Brad Keselowski for giving me a chance to run his Truck this weekend. This is an amazing opportunity and I really appreciate the confidence he has in my abilities to represent his race team. In addition, I would like to thank Eddie Smith, Darrell Blanton and especially Bandit Chippers and Getmorevacations.com for their belief in me in the Nationwide series over the last year and their continued support. I would love to represent everyone at the front this weekend”.

Kligerman will make his first NASCAR Camping World Truck start on Friday night at 8:30 pm est. on Speed TV, and follow that up with the NASCAR Nationwide Series on Saturday at Noon est. on ESPN 2.

- Parker Kligerman Inc. Press Release