TALLADEGA, Ala. — Parker Kligerman finally shed the bridesmaid tag, winning Saturday’s fred’s 250 at Talladega Superspeedway under caution after nearly half of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series field wrecked behind him.
Johnny Sauter pushed Kligerman to the lead on the white-flag lap, and Kligerman held the top spot when a massive wreck on the backstretch forced NASCAR to throw the yellow before Kligerman reached the finish line.
The victory was Kligerman’s first after five second-place finishes over the last two seasons.
Sauter ran second, followed by James Buescher and Ty Dillon. Ryan Blaney came home fifth.
On Lap 46, contact from John Wes Townley’s Toyota turned the Toyota of Ross Chastain into the outside wall, igniting a chain-reaction wreck that also collected the trucks of two-time series champion Todd Bodine and Johnny Chapman.
Fourteen laps later, a melee on the frontstretch damaged the truck of another former champion, Ron Hornaday Jr. and knocked last week’s Las Vegas winner, Nelson Piquet Jr., and Donnie Neuenberger out of the race.
Justin Lofton led the field to a restart on Lap 66, pulling Timothy Peters and Kurt Busch with him. Ten laps later Hornaday’s spin, the result of a cut tire, caused the fifth caution, with Lofton still in the lead. During the yellow, Kligerman’s team changed the battery on the No. 7 Toyota after the gauges registered a voltage drop.
Kligerman restarted 21st, but before the field completed two laps, the driver of the No. 7 Tundra had pushed the No. 23 Ford of Jason White from 18th to the lead. White and Kligerman were running 1-2 when Hornaday spun again in the tri-oval, his right-rear tire shredded.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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