MARTINSVILLE, Va. — NBC Sports analyst Parker Kligerman will race full-time next season in the Xfinity Series for Big Machine Racing, the team announced Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.
“Parker brings experience and a huge desire to do this,” team owner Scott Borchetta said. “That was our first conversation, ‘Do you still have the fire to go and run for a championship, or have you become more part-time?’ It’s just things that I had to know.
“He convinced me very quickly, ‘I want to go race hard, I want to go win.’ Our conversations were exactly what I was looking for. … I get to hire a star and that’s what Big Machine has always been about, whether it’s our (music) artists that we sign or the product. Now, we’ve got a star in the car.”
MORE: Details for Saturday’s Xfinity race at Martinsville
The 32-year-old Kligerman last ran a full season in a NASCAR series in 2013 in the Xfinity Series. He has made 110 Camping World Truck starts, 56 Xfinity starts and 30 Cup starts in his career. He has three career Truck wins, including earlier this season at Mid-Ohio.
“It’s been such an interesting, gosh, what eight years of doing part-time (racing) and TV and jumping around in different rides and trying to find a home … where I felt like was a place that had the intention to go win and accepted what I like to do outside the car, which is promote the sport in a lot of ways, and could set me for potentially a future in terms of growing with that organization.”
Kligerman said he intends to continue running select Truck Series races next year with Henderson Motorsports and also continue his pit reporting duties with NBC Sports for Cup races.
Next season will be the third season for Borchetta’s Big Machine Racing team. The team scored its first Xfinity victory this season with Tyler Reddick at Texas in the spring. Reddick is one of 10 drivers who have driven the No. 48 car this season. Reddick has driven five races for the team. Ross Chastain has raced for the team twice and Kligerman has run one race for the team. The team is affiliated with Richard Childress Racing.
It’s been a long time in the making
— Parker Kligerman (@pkligerman) October 29, 2022
Thank you all for your unbelievable support & belief!
Bring on 2023 @bigmchnracing @SpikedCoolers @scottborchetta
Let’s go get a lot of 🏁 pic.twitter.com/lu3v1csKJ0
