Phoenix: William Byron maturation; low downforce discussions; Parker Kligerman 2023 Xfinity season; how the young driver narrative is changing in NASCAR

Hi, welcome to the NASCAR ABC Podcast. I'm your host Nate Ryan. Back at the Charlotte NBC Sports Studios, where we used to do NASCAR American motor mounts and where I still do the podcast, but I don't normally do it in person except when new Charlotte resident Parker Kligerman is in town. The last time I did this was right after the 2022 season Parker stopped by. We

talked about Phoenix. We talked about his upcoming Xfendi season here in 2023. And now he has returned and is in person because you live, what did you say? Like a half mile? Half point six miles, but according to the maps right over here in the South end. Live is a stretch. It's a crash pad. You're like flight attendant. I'm literally like a consultant. That's why I

like to say because I'm like, there's nothing in there, but a bed in a carpet right now. That's perfect. That's all you need really when you're living the NASCAR lifestyle, which you clearly are this year. You're running full time in the Xfendi series, which is why you are now living in the South end of Charlotte. And we talked about that last year in the podcast. We're

going to get to all that. I want to talk about how your seasons going with the big machine team. But before we get to all that, this is the NASCAR NBC podcast. So we normally do talk the previous cup race. We are taping this on Tuesday. So the window is somewhat closed on talking Phoenix by just wanted to put a bow on it because that's what

we do here. I would encourage everybody to go to the Motorsports and NBC YouTube channel and check out Parker talking with Jeff Burton and Marty Snyder about the Phoenix race and our motormouths videos this week. But William Byron wins this race back to back wins for him. And you talked about this on those videos. But you've been impressed by his composure, his confidence. We all know

that this guy has elite talent. He's a championship level contender. But as you said, he's kind of been developing in front of our eyes now for I mean, it's hard to believe. This is season six. No, talking about I mean, I just he's got a long career ahead. I feel old enough. Having just turned 50. But when I think about William Byron being in his sixth

cup season, it's almost depressing. But yeah, you've talked about this before. Confidence really matters. It's like this nebulous thing. And he's clearly got it. It's the ultimate currency for race car drivers. Yeah, like aside from actual money. So like to make that joke, right? But it's the other form of money in racing. And this game is so mental. This is not dissimilar to golfers in that.

We as race car drivers are our own biggest enemy and our biggest, you know, whole thing to hold us back. And also our biggest opportunity. Right. What I mean by is it's all mental. And so confidence is a huge part of that, right? And it's not. You know, false confidence can be, as I think Jeff Burton put it, Eric and so much, right? Right. But true

confidence when you have a belief in your processes, your systems, with your preparation, all those things. And then you can go and use that to execute on the given moment. I thought of you, whether it's a restart or just do out a whole race, whatever, right? That's where true confidence comes from. And will you be in to me, you're seeing that level of confidence right now.

And what I mean by that is that, you know, if you look at the past couple seasons, he is obviously one races. He has been in position to be a champship contender at times, but there's been peaks and valleys, lulls and high points. And I think some of that, you know, just talking to him and just talking to people around him. Some of those lulls were,

you know, there was kind of like one of my doing wrong. You know, what's, how do I fix this? Like not knowing. And when I saw just these first two races, now, you know, last week at Vegas, you know, they obviously had some of the fastest cars, 100 motor sports, the Chevy's are fast. But then at Phoenix, what was really impressive to me is that he

obviously had the fat one of the fastest cars to start, came in Larson. He falls behind. They go to this lull period, almost like a microcosm of a season from the time we'll admire in the past, goes to this lull period and then was given the opportunity to strike and, you know, made it happen. It doesn't get, you know, doesn't lose composer, doesn't get let emotion

seep in that sort of thing. And he, Rudy Fugel, worked so hard on him, you know, at times. When you listen to them talk about what they've focused on the last two years, three years, it's been him. And like, think about him going racing and short track stuff like he's been doing. That's been an incredible investment by him and time after money to just go race

cars, because we as drivers do not race cars. Like we don't drive cars right now. Like in this whole sport, from Formula One, I guess sports cars are a little different. They do a lot of testing. But from the top levels, Formula One, in NASCAR, we've done this whole, you know, this idea of cost cutting and getting away from driving the cars, because it's too expensive.

So we do everything in simulators, right? And so it's up to the drivers now to go and drive race cars. And I just think it's very cool what he's done and going winning all the late malracies and just racing and, and in fact, investing in himself because the end of the day is such a mental game. So that's what impressed me. His ability to manage emotions,

Parker. Like when I think of William Byron, I never think of a guy who's all that emotional. I mean, you think of like just even keel, like very late back kid. But when you're behind the wheel and your heart's being 200 beats a minute, I guess it doesn't matter who you are. You got to like learn to manage all that. Yeah, I think even, you know,

Danny Hamlin, who has the, the heart rate during racing of like a dead person. I mean, I still, I talked to sonas T. I think that it is. I still don't believe that. I don't know. I got to find. He's messing with his whoop data. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Everyone else. Like, do you know what he got? He's on the broadcast be like,

yeah, 180. Like I look at mine. Like I average like 100. If I'm wearing a cool suit around 135. If I'm not wearing a cool suit, it's around 148 peaks at like 170 180 depending on the day. And so like that's just sort of a note. So when I see Denny's heart rate, I'm like, that's ridiculous. But anyway, I don't know. Maybe it might be true

because he's incredible athlete. But the thing with William, yeah, I know, I know he's not a very emotional person. But I've listened to his radio at times. And you know, there's been over the last couple of seasons. I've had that, you know, just like you've been that flying the wall sort of situation in the last couple of years of being able to listen to his radio

and cover him and Rudy. And, you know, there's moments. And that's normal. Like your competitor, you're firing. You're going to want the best and do those things. And when it's going wrong, it can overcome you in some respects, right? The emotions can overcome you. So I think that's, that's all part of the building process is trying to find those moments and not let them see been.

And that's what I think he did at Phoenix. That's what was impressive. And he did it by managing those final two restarts, which obviously were a big part of the equation. I mean, restarts are always important at the end of a cup race. But especially in this instance, where everybody's talking about so difficult to pass on this particular day and over time, green white checkered, it

always just comes down to lane management. It's like that. You know, there's an element of luck in there that the choose rule has changed a little bit. We have a little bit more of control of your destiny. But then I also think we've added so much. This is going to be a sound odd. We've added so much ability to decide that it then goes back to

being a little bit of a luck. Everyone's going in a different direction. You can't control what they do. Like you go to the high side because all this stuff tells you and then three people decide they want to go to the bottom. Like it changes the whole structure of the lanes. And you're like, well, everything told me to do that. And now the decision of other

humans, which I can't control has just totally changed the situation I'm in in this restart. But yeah, he had excellent restarts. That's a huge part of the game. Restarts are a really interesting part of modern day motor sports in that. You know, you don't have many series that experience. Obviously the amount of restarts that we do. The restarts are huge opportunities and massive opportunities also for

failure. And it can all happen in a split second. You know, just to see two sides of the coin there. We'll invite nails it, right. Beats Kyle Larson side by side. Pretty epic situation there and restarting. Harvick does not get the good restart. It doesn't clear get to the bottom. Let's the 45 do his inside on the second last restart. That puts him in the middle

on the part of the track that has all the rubber on it. He's not able to use his new tires down where redic does on the apron. Where there's no rubber. And so you just have a huge grip advantage. He gets boxed in. So then he's in a terrible position for the last restart. And that's how he, you know, he doesn't win that race. Redic gets

an opportunity. No, most win it. That's the two sides of restarting in modern day NASCAR and your whole all the effort, the weeks preparation for that race. The going through the whole race leading by a couple of seconds for Kevin Harvick. That comes down to literally going through the gears and not and not clearing the 45 there by a couple inches to be able to go

the inside. Highly unusual for him. Harvick's really good. I mean, that happens. What? One out of 10 times. Harvick's not in bad restart. I don't, you know, I don't know the numbers on that. But I just think they're just hard, right. They're just really. It's tons of fine details and things that have to play out your way to make it work or not work. No matter

how much homework you do and ever it comes down to like having to actually execute. It's a golf or having to swing the club. You know, on the tee box, like he's just, you got to do it. There's a million ways for it to go wrong. When I see a restart go wrong, like Redic said, you know, his restart wasn't the best on the last one.

He should have been right behind the 24. And I'm like, if I, if I was on that team, you know, not in the driver capacity, I'd be like, okay, but we were in position. Yeah. Like, you know, like, that's only something you can control. The guy launches the little lurch. You have a moment, hit couple of motor, whatever. It's like that. You can't control that stuff.

You just have to put yourself in position and hope it goes right. And. There were some drivers, a lot of drivers actually were saying that the cars were harder to drive, but it wasn't necessarily easier to pass. William Byron was, was somebody who said that. So all the talk coming in this race parker was about the debut of this new low down force package. We heard

Jeff Burton say it. Maybe the lowest amount of down force that cup drivers have had in 30 years. I was talking with our friend Jeff Gluck after the race that we were kind of joking about. Like, it almost felt like there was almost too much focus put on this. Like, I almost wanted to send out a tweet. Being John Malchovitch style, like low down force, low

down force, low down force, low down force. All Airbnb was talking about before the race. It was still being talked about after the race. Your driver, what did you make of this debut of new low down force package? I know Phoenix is always hard to pass, but it seems like it didn't quite achieve what they had hoped in terms of passing. Cars were hard to drive,

but they were still not necessarily easier to pass. You know, I don't know. I mean, they'll have numbers and such and that sort of thing, but I don't know. Like, when I watched the race from a year ago, that place. It's like there was no way to pass. The cars are moving around. And it was like track position was king. This one, I mean, at least

the cars move around and it reward it. You know, looked a little old fashioned and having larson lead by a couple seconds. And then however, it has a better long run and takes care of his right retire. And he ends up driving away by a couple seconds. But you could see his car wiggling around and he was doing his amazing discipline, you know, ability to be

so disciplined on hitting the same point on the race track on the bottom. And wrap a line like he does so well. And I just was like, okay, like that's stuck or racing. Cool. Like awesome. That's that's what we want to see. And like, you know, for me, passing and all that stuff, I don't know. It's I always think it's so, you know, it's objective, right?

Like, well, subject. Subjective. Sorry. That's why I mean subjective. That's I was like, I got I got a 50 50 chance here again. This right? And I went the wrong way. It's morning. It's early. I'm drinking restart. Yeah, it's like a restart. I had a chance. But I guess I've tried it. What I'm trying to say is I've sort of especially in the last year or

so, two years, just gotten away from trying to judge racing. Right? Like Jeff Burton said yesterday, he was like, he watched me say the same thing. Where I was like, what do you define? You know, where do you define good racing? Is it as a driver? You like to see the car slipping side around? If you're a fan of casual fan, do you want to see

18 wide and on fire upside down? I mean, there's this, you know, this huge spectrum of what's good racing. All I know is the NASCAR Cup Series racing product in 2023 is exceptional as a as a motor sport as a entity to me. It is a sitting giant in the world of sports. When we see what's happening with Formula One and its popularity right now, when

you see what's happening with some of these niche weird sports that are gaining popularity, I'm like, if we can get people to just care what's happening out there, I don't even you don't even have to worry about the product. The product is amazing. It's in the best spot I'll ever be. You can tweak from here. But that's not going to be a good thing. We're going

to move the needle. We now have to get people to care. And because the more eyes and the more people you get to care and think this thing is cool, you know, it's an incredible spot with how close the field is, the amount of parity continue. I know it's a little bit less parity right now. The Chevy's winning, but I'm telling you it's unbelievable. I want

to touch on the parity because that was one more thing that we discussed last time we were here in November. You made this really good point about as we were coming off this season of what how many different winners last year? Do we have 20 or 90? I feel like it was 20. Did it get to be low 20s? Because the playoff started with three new

winners. That's got a couple winners. 22 to hold on. I'm looking at it. Okay. There was that's this is you. I think you wrote this. No, that's right. It was probably dust. 19 different winners. 19 different times the record for the most different winners is a single season. Time the record. Okay. So we talked about this and you said something in the effect of that I

don't know if it's necessarily the trend will continue because you know, we always see it, you know, the Empire Strikes Back, the big teams will figure things out. And it seems like the 2023 season has started very much in that vein with Hendrick Motorsports. Everude Agreed. Best team in NASCAR. Yeah. One the past two races. They have been on it despite the fact that NASCAR now

has taken some parts, which by the way, we're taping this before. We know what comes out of that. I mean, God knows it didn't seem to certainly affect them at Phoenix, but has it unfolded kind of the way you were expecting there where you thought this would be sort of like revenge. Of the powerhouse teams and Hendrick is killing it so far. Yeah. I mean, a

little bit. I felt like there would be some equilibrium, you know, that comes back in that sense. Yeah. You don't have the the craziness of last year, everyone's just trying to figure out how this car works and what that and you know, random teams are going to hit it. And it goes back to like the old car where. If you look in the early 2000s, there

was that perception of like anyone can win on any given day. A Joni, you know, or 30 second place car, Michael Winner race or win the poll and it gives this perception that anyone could win, right? And if you look back then, the reason being was that if the best team in the sport nailed everything they knew how to do on the car, they were probably

at like say 90% of the car's potential, right? As technology came into the mid 2000s and into where we are now. In the old car, teams like Hendrick Motorsports could get 100% of that car's potential at any given time, whereas the smaller teams could still only get to the top 90. So you don't get where they, you know, just huge buffer zone of being able to

get the potential out of the race car. That makes sense. It makes sense. It's a little bit scientific, but I think with this car, you know, last year was an example of a lot of teams were working in, you know, the best they could do is 90% tile, right? Well, my, like, this is all we know how to do this thing. That's going to change and

naturally that gap is going to close. But the other part to that that's interesting to me that we haven't re-experienced is there should be like a natural ceiling, right? Yeah. Where sure, Hendrick Motorsports knows it now, but does that mean in eight, six months that everyone else figures out the same stuff or Chevy has this thing? So they figured out and then a couple months, the

other manufacturers figured out that so the equilibrium comes back. You know, and so they all maybe eventually rise to 100% of the potential, but then everyone's at 100% of the potential and we're back where we were probably a year ago. So I think, yes, but I also would pay attention to the manufacturer side. I think the manufacturers have a increasing, well, I know they have an

increasing importance in way that NASCAR is going in terms of design. And in terms of how the structure behind the scenes is all working. And you know, this has been a trend over the last couple of years. And you've seen it on the drive development programs and all that's happening. They have an incredible amount of influence. So, you know, seeing Chevy win four races, do we

go three months and suddenly Ford wins four races? And Toyota's win four, you know, like that's I could see that being a trend. Well, that is the 2023 cup season to date through four races. I feel like we've covered that fairly well. And enough about NASCAR's premier series. Let's talk about Parker Kulger. Oh, oh, yeah. And the 2023 Xfantasy series. So first four races, 23rd at

Daytona, 10th at Fontana, 11th at Las Vegas, 15th at Phoenix, in a backup car, 12th and points, eventful. Certainly. Some moments, flashes of brilliance, your team certainly shown the ability to run up front. Unfortunately, some things, some drivers have affected those outcomes. My self personally. Yeah, wait, Daytona, I know you took a lot of the heat and the blame there. Yeah, give us the rundown how

it's gone so far. Well, Daytona hit everything. That was good. We Jeff Reurn, Hartley Jeff Reurn, cleared myself. That was awesome. That didn't get any public to see at all. Hey, I said to someone, I was like, well, they know we're here. That's cool. Yeah, it's first race. Hey, I'm back. Back with a splash. Let's go. Team had an incredible fast car. We qualified in the

front row there, which was awesome. It really cool for big machine racing and just, you know, this shows the competence of our race team and the speed that we can bring the racetrack. And then, yeah, we would call for you. No practice. No qualifying started somewhere in the teens and immediately on the first lap, I was like, oh, baby, here we go. And I was like,

this is why we're so missing pretty quick. We drove into the top 10. We actually finished the top 10 on old tires at the end of the stage. A lot of guys on new tires. That was pretty cool. We got fifth and stage two had a bad run at the end where I overjusted to the tight side for us, learned my X-Vinne car stuff. And then

we went to Vegas. And I was, I had prepped like really hard for Vegas and auto club and using simulators. And we've been doing similar stuff since November. And then some of these other preparation tools that I've been incorporating. And we went there and in practice, we were like P4 right off the truck. And I'm like, let's go. Let's go. Same cars auto club felt like

I knew the cars better qualified six. And we get in the race and three laps. And we get spun out by John Hunter and you check. And that put us behind. We had to fight back. We ended putting ourselves in a pretty good position late in the race. We were really fast. And we had a long pit stop on our green flag stop. So that made

us finish 11th instead of pre finishing 8th or 9th. So it would have been two top 10s which would have been nice. And in Phoenix, this was a place I started working on in November last year. So literally I went to the team. I circled three or four tracks. So I was like, these places. I don't know why, but I need to be better. Or I

haven't been there in a while, you know, 10 years or whatever. Like auto club last time I race there was 2014 cup. But felt the same. The thing though is, like I looked at these tracks and Phoenix won them. And the best part about that is I looked back my history and like, it was very fast to Phoenix. The first time I went there, it was

very fast and it finished well. All these things. But for some reason I had this idea that I just wasn't good there. So went to work on it. We showed up. And in practice right off the. I did almost a thousand laps in the similar last week between cup and Xfendi helping out the RCR team of some of their prep as well. Learned some things from

college. I applied, wherever and it all came together in practice. And I was like, oh, we're 10 on the board. Top five on average. Let's go qualify well. Let's go run into top five. Maybe we have shot this thing. And went off to qualifying. Had a little issue. The break into three felt was really soft. Tap pumped it up down the straightaway. Went off into one.

Hit the break. It was there for a second. Then it went to the floor. And went into the wall. I was like, oh my goodness. So that put us behind my team did a miraculous job. They built a car in two hours essentially set it up in about four minutes. Made through tech. We were adjusting things on the grid. And we hopped in and we drove

that thing up into the eighth place at one point towards the end of the race and had a shot at top 10, which was awesome. So not the start, not the storybook start you're looking for, right? But not like we're out in the left field. You know, my crew chief and I sat down yesterday and I was like, look, we've got speed in those. They gets

an auto club. We ranked about 10th on average speed, which is about two tenths off the leader, but about running clean air, you know, minus half a tenth to 10th. Like we're there. And I just sat down and was like, you I have not been in a car. That on average is within two tenths of the fastest car in the series. I don't know if 10

years. So I was like, just give trust me. We're going to be great. Just keep give me that and we'll be fine. We're going to win races. So I've got that level of confidence. It's not arrogance. It's confidence because I know level of preparation. Then put behind this and, you know, and the level of dedication and and just know it, you know, looking a little bit

at my past of just being like, man, you have done more with lot less. So it's a lot to take on. There's a lot of stuff being thrown my way in terms of resources and tools that I'm trying to sort of taking at the right pace and the right time. But we talked about confidence. Obviously, I came in the season of a lot of confidence because

last two years have been just insane for me in terms of performance. Race is going well and just not in anything I stepped in. I felt like I could make anything happen. You have a couple races that doesn't go quite as well as you hope and like that's where you have to be like, all right. That's right. This is how it goes. You know, long season.

Don't get down. I have 34. You're not going to have 34 perfect races like you got to stick with it. And it's good because there's built, you know, there's silver linings in this where there's things that we are learning as a team about me about the cars, about stuff we can do better. That are, you know, and as long as you're not in the disaster, which

we're not we're 12 points 10 out of a thread. You know, we're in a we're in a fine position. So it's cool. We're in a great place. But the confidence thing is like you start to go down the path and it's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Remember, you have really fast cars. It's the hardest thing usually. So yeah, pretty cool. My owner, Scott Borshet is

very supportive. He was pumped when we got that top 10 all club pumped in the front row at Daytona. And you know, just knows we're in the fight. I keep saying that. I keep posting. We're in the game. But we are like we're and I know this because a lot of the guys who I've considered friends the last couple years of doing TV and on the

reporting side won't speak to me anymore. So we must be. I love it. We're where I want to start. So I just rambled for one. No, no. As usual, it's a great answer and leave me like mouth of gate, like trying to go back and think of like, okay, I want to fall upon this, this, and this. Let's go back to when we talked about this

before we start recording here that your team is how would you describe it? Sort of like mid level. Where young team young team. Young team. And certainly not on the same level is like a Gibbs Xfinney team that you're competing against. But we talked about this the last time you're here on the podcast that you've got so many many more tools resources that you're going to

expose. Now in the last time you ran full time Xfinney in 2013, but you can't just touch out there. It's like almost I hate the cliche drinking through a fire hose. But is that sort of what applies here with your team? Like you you almost don't know how yet to sort of maximize like you've got so many things available to you through the Alliance with Children's

and like that. But and GM racing and Chevy. But like how do we do this the most efficient way possible and maintain that speed? Yeah. No, that's a great point. And we you know, there's probably more available than we can even heart you know, use right? Right. So that that's where we just have to be really smart racers in no using Patrick Donohue's knowledge of my

experience to sort of decide what isn't isn't important. Because that's what our job is right now. When you have a younger team. And I say younger just because it's their third year. Right. And even I don't care if you you know, Walt's on end to Joe Gibbs racing or Rich Cholars. And you buy everything. Remember like there's still a process of your people and your team

and how it functions and how those people use the tools. And hand and all those things. And that's what we're building. So you know, it's it's in a really cool spot. I would say before the season I expect us to be about the start the year about the 10th best team and exactly where we were right. And that's a little bit of just looking at the

landscape of where things are at. I think that's us beating two or three teams. We probably if you looked at the numbers and everything you would say no, they should be faster. But they're not. So we're doing our job. The the resources and the tools thing is really fascinating because it's so different than what it was 10 years ago. And there's so much more available. And

it's it is absolutely a seven day week job right now in terms of if you're a guy in my position who isn't maybe a part of one of those programs. Reverit that there's a lot of the work for the drivers. It means I've got to work doubly as hard to make sure that I'm using my processes and preparation. Correct. And that I'm using the tools effectively

and I'm laying them in at the right speed. Right. And not overwhelm me myself. So that is that's been a lot of challenge has been a cool thing to do right and it's been fun. And I get to I like it was in a competition competition meeting yesterday. And I was just like, huh. This is awesome. It's like this is so cool. This is the way

it's supposed to go. There's like there's a lot of egos in this room. But this is really cool. So I just it's just yeah, I just I don't know. I've gotten to be on the outside right. Which is I some would look as a detriment. But I'm like, that's it's an opportunity because I've gotten to see what all this is like from the outside and sort

of be you know shoved out per se but then to get brought back in and see it again and be immersed in it. It's been a really cool experience in that sense. Who else is in those competition meetings on Monday? The RCR group. Okay. And then colleague as well. So yeah, we it's just cool. It's it's drivers and yeah, yeah. So Kyle Bush. He wasn't there.

He wasn't there. Okay. No, but Austin Hill, Shelton Creed. We work really closely with them. Got sure. Okay. And you know, they're a great group and obviously Austin Hill is on a heater. He's on a great job in this six-fany series adapting to it. You know, I felt like I said and I'll say this straight to his face. Like when we raise trucks, you know, I

knew he was he was good. But I don't know if I was like that's the guy that we're going to all have to beat every week. And in this series right now, he's on it. And it's pretty cool. See and it's cool to be in the room. Listening to him and like, oh, okay. Yeah. I didn't think you know that's interesting. Cool. So I like that.

I like all right. I know you know, that's that's where we have to go and we get to be flying the wall. That room. It's very cool. Now is there a level Parker? Like we're almost have to throttle back on yourself a little bit like when you're talking about like the Monday through Thursday after Vegas, you're running a thousand laps on a simulator. Expandion cup to

try to get ready for Phoenix. You try to find like those. I mean, like to have a life for something. Well, I guess that's sort of what I'm asking is like, no, I mean, like at this point in your life, it's just like I'm just going to do a thousand laps every week if that's what it takes on a simulator. Man, I made a pact with

myself when we decide to do this. And what I was like, I don't want to have if I turn around in 10 months and this is you know, no matter what happens, I want to turn around in November and go. There was literally not a single thing that I could have done different or better would have, right? That's been my pact myself from day one. Getting

a place down here, being fully immersed. You know, my girlfriend is going to stay up in Connecticut. She's we haven't seen each other in a month and a half. That's my dedication level to this because I've been just want to win so bad. And I want to prove, you know, that I deserve to be here, that I have what it takes to be here. And I

know I do, but it's just going out there and execute on that. And I think the opportunity, isn't just to prove like one win. I'm like, I want to go put us in position where people, when we turn around in November, we're in position to be a championship 14. That's my goal. And I think it's attainable. And it's, you know, I think if I do that

and win multiple races, the rest will figure itself out. But no, I have never done my life, which is probably why I had a little lol in my time driving. I'm burst myself and applied myself to level I am right now. So it's, oh, and there's a scaryness there, right? There's like, because like, I don't know if I've ever done that anything. No offense, sorry, NBC.

I don't, you know, I don't know if I've ever done that anything. It had such a singular focus on one thing and one goal. But and that's a scary place to be when you're someone who's like me with, you know, think of all the things I multitacked and all this stuff. But I never felt like I was doing anything to the best level I possibly could.

Yeah. Right now it's like this is the only thing that exists in the world. And it's all I care about. So if it takes a thousand laps and it's same every week, or you know, to be stuck in there for 20 hours of the week and be seven days a week of tape and film and streets and, you know, averages and so on and so forth.

Then that's if that's what it takes. And I'm ready to do it right now. And I just, because I want to win. And everybody around you just sort of understands that like, you know, Shannie, your girlfriend who you said you haven't seen her in a month and a half. Like she just understands like, that's the way 2023 is going to be. And she's going to be

she and everybody else in your inner circle. Like the way they're going to support you is to keep your chin up after you have tough weekends. But they're not going to tell you, Hey, maybe take some more time for yourself. No. No. I'm full all in this year. They're all, you know, and that's a great point. You know, that's one thing I think when I look

back, like I didn't lean on support systems and that's her stuff. And it's really important. You hear drivers talk about all the time. But yeah, even just one tough weekend can spiral you out of like, man, what's going on? Like, well, one, you need those people have outside perspective to be like, Hey, actually, this is where you're really at. Like, this isn't so bad. And, you

know, I think that's just really important. And she's been huge with that. And, you know, I think, yes, to that point, my family, everyone knows just don't even, you know, this is it. This is everything. Like there's nothing else right now. And it's, it's all that matters. And it's, it's going to consume me for the next eight months, wherever's left in the season. And I love

that. Like I'm down for it. And she, like, you know, go have a life. Like, I don't care. I don't want one. I just want to do this. This is life. So by my other things myself was like, okay, so you turn around a year. And it's either worked or didn't like, what did you lose? Nothing. Like if anything, there's only upside. So just go after

it. So Phoenix, it's probably a top five car. Yeah, the primary. We were 10th and speed charts, fifth on average. Okay. We'd worked really hard on that one. That that's one that hurts a lot because I wanted, you know, I put a lot of focus and be better there. It's a very important racetrack because the chip chip is there and did go and have the issues

we didn't qualify and lose the primary was was a beat down. But it was cool to see my team rally the way they did. I think we learned something. There were some silver linings there that will make us actually better prepared in the future. And I think, you know, that's what you got to take from moments like that. And then our fight back in the race

with the backup car that got set up in four minutes, part of my thing to my crew chief, Patrick Donny, as I said, all right, that's the worst we can be. Yeah. We can't be worse than what we were there because we set that car for four minutes. It is not nearly as good as our primary car. We were running eighth with like 20 to go.

I was like, so let's just start there. If that's a worst we can be the worst we can be is 20 spots ahead of last in the field or ever. That's pretty good. We're in a fine spot. So, you know, that's that's the opportunity. As well. And, you know, it's it's about finding those silver linings for this right now, but long season ahead lots of great

tracks for us. I landed this weekend. Feel like we can go win. Coda. You know, I think we can go in that. I'm doing trucks and and it's been on the same weekend. They're the same day. So that will be another crazy psychotic double that I did last year, which was five and a half hours a car. Yeah. I look important to do that one again.

We're working out a ton. So ready for that. But yeah, I just I look ahead and I'm like, all right, there's just so much opportunity. And I know people hear that and they're like, oh, how cliche. And ask for whatever things there's opportunity. But like really, man, I just like Phoenix, when we were that quick, I'm like, okay, we're gonna have no weaknesses in terms of

tracks because that would have been only other one might be a Richmond or something. But I just what the way we ran there was like, we're gonna be fine. And is that just one of those fluky things that's just gonna happen a few times the break thing in qualifying? Is that just something that happens every once in a while? No. Okay. Yeah, I think it's I've

had a little issue. There's stuff as race forever is like where you get to, you know, you can basically take a car and run the top 10, no matter what, you know, if it's in the right speed, wherever, no matter what's going on, there's fine tuning stuff for you that you need to feel wise. It gets you to the top five in the first, right? There

were some things I was looking for. And I think the little unsure about the separate breaks. And so, you know, I look back at that. There's some telltale signs and practice that I should have been more vocal about with the break issue, especially down in the turn three on the out lap. That probably could have decided to maybe abort. That's hard to say, right? But if,

you know, if being fair, I think that's something to say. Like, hey, I think there's an issue here. Yeah. Especially all my years experience to kind of have spoken up there. But was, you know, I've been very open minded. You know, one thing I think of the drivers that you see in the sport is they sometimes guys are not successful because they pigeonhole themselves into sort

of a box. This is how I like things to feel. This is what I want to do. Well, when I went into this season, especially starting back in November, I tried really, really hard to be like open up that window, whether that's being loose on entry or dealing with the car, doing one other thing or a, you know, steering box feel that's different than what you'd

like in the past or break feel like my thought process going this year was like just be super open minded, especially the beginning. And then we're fine from there, right? And early on, I've seen it where I've just, you know, I've really opened up my window of allowing the car to be loose on entry and not bother. It's not anything I already talked about mentally programmed

myself to be like, when the car wiggles on entry, just deal with it. Who cares? You just drive through it and find ways and change this and do that. And so that has been a big progative of mine. And, you know, that played a little bit into why I probably wasn't so vocal. The issues we're having. And then obviously we had the biggest inequality. Man, such

a balance to like try to figure out like, you know, I want to go this direction or this direction, speak up here, speak up there. That's interesting. All right. So not to dwell on the negative, but I just got to ask you about Vegas. Cause again, I watch this V log, which I recommend everybody go check out Parker's YouTube channel. P. Cligerman. I think it's the

channel. Your sister Madeline. Sure. The V.O. I'm going to be a big. So we've had a rotating cast made up my PR guy at Daytona and never he then unfortunately left us yet. Well, for him, he had an opportunity. He wanted to pursue. So then it was Madeline who jumped in my sister for Auto Club and Vegas. Phoenix. We had my crew chief's daughter. Was the

videographer that you'll see this week. And then in land, I don't know what we're doing. So we'll figure it out. It's a week by week thing. It's it's working out. I thought I wanted to really get my point. Being we're trying to this started and the all season. I felt like it'd be a really cool story to see you be trying to go through this. And

so I know there's not as much mid week content. Maybe as they like all the other stuff I'm doing. But I'm just going to be a little bit more careful. It's really hard for me to film. Honestly, it's often, but at least we're doing the weekends and so you kind of get an update. And so it's almost an episodic weekend by weekend. And at the end

of the year, we'll hope there'll be as I'm doing what 44 races, 45 races year, but combined. Like, there'll be about 40 of them. So yeah. Well, like I said, Vegas was really good. I think you said it was maybe your. You felt like one of the best. I know the best one. AJR editor nailed it. Yeah, I can. Yeah, you get to learn about the

angels and airwaves. Carker drive to the track history. But you also see the huge disappointment. And the app three John Hunter Neymitchek in the Gibbs car takes you out. Yeah. There's no other way to say it. So how do you deal with that or have you dealt with it? Since then. I saw him Sunday after Phoenix, the entryway to the hotel. And I said, Hey, I

stood in front of his car and gave him a gesture. And then I said, Hey, I hate you right now. And he goes, I know, I'm sorry. I should have called you or something. And I said, it's good. I was just like, you know, it'll be reciprocated. One point. You know, and you know, it was as matter of fact, as Frank is like someone can be.

Yeah. And then we chatted. We were fine. But I was like, you know, we're not even yet. So because he literally just drove through us. And for like lap three, lap three. We're in fifth or sixth place. Wherever we're at, there's just no there's nothing to gain there. There's losing nothing. He drove to the lead anyway. From that point on, like, it was just it was

just a very ill fit. You know, it's just stupid move. And you know, really set us back. Cause I think on that day, we would have scored a whole stage point. So. And we probably would have easily finished the top 10. We're still going to finish the top 10. I haven't come back on that last run for like 14th. So a day hurt us. And you

know, didn't appreciate it. I guess what was surprising to me too is like, he's not in the exact same position as you are in your career. But he's been through like a similar journey. And you know, he had his kind of shot early. Then he went to cup and ran that full year with front row. Then he set up and I get back to the truck

series. And now he's kind of back in the series. I can't give him dispensation or whatever early way for like, hey, he's just a young driver. No, he's kind of knows he knows what you're dealing with too. That's what surprises me about the fun. The funniest part was right before the race at driver intros, we were chatting. We were like, man, it's cool. We're here in

the experience together. Wow, what it's like. Yeah, yeah, whatever. I was like, man, it's cool. Like we've never had an issue. I know I've seen him have some issues with other drivers. And there's a lot of people that feel that he right, you know, does those moves often. But I've never had an issue. And personally, we've raised each other a ton in the trucks and it

is fitting. And I think even a little bit in cup. Yeah, we didn't cup in 2019. And never had an issue. And you know, I always thought like, hey, he's a pretty good driver. Like, you know, Guy wins races and does a great job. And wherever. And yeah, I was just like, what, what was that man? Like, come on of all guys. Like it's some point.

I said to someone. At some point, you have to be responsible for the nose of your race car. Just like if you run in the back of someone on the road, you got to be a spot. You're going to take responsibility for that. And then I just made a boneheaded move at Daytona and finally saw the replay. I was like, well, yeah, that was my fault.

That was the hundred percent my fault. That was pretty dumb. I'm sorry. When I spun out Sean Creed, I was like, I'm sorry. That was not intended. Not even a little bit. But you know, I was in position. Be like, look, I made a mistake. I'm sorry. So you'll have that big time all racing. But we've had an initiation by the flame. This first four races.

But hopefully we can clean it up here going forward. I'm going to start off what you've had. I want to change the young driver narrative to something a little more positive because what I've noticed so far this year, Parker. And again, maybe I'm over analyzing like all sports writers journalists do. But there's you who I think is a great story. Josh Barry, obviously has made the

championship round. Xfendi is a winner. Xfendi been out getting the opportunity in the night car. Your buddy Ryan Trux finishes second at Phoenix. That was awesome. Yeah, that was really cool. And he's one of those guys who I put him in. Kind of your class or your category of, you know, if only these guys got the shot for like a few season, you know, maybe, maybe

they would, they would be in the Cup series. Does it seem? Is it my imagination? Or is the narrative changing? Maybe a little where it seems like younger drivers like, you know, yourself, what Josh Barry Ryan Trux. Are you guys getting more opportunities? It feels like a change. Yeah, I don't know if you know what seven years ago if a Josh Barry gets the chance he's

getting right now with Dale's team. And to be in the nine car, he did a great job this past weekend, Phoenix. I know I do. I don't because I didn't. So couldn't get these opportunities. Ryan, you know, I know he's been in out of different deals. But I think he's, you know, in a good position of trying to do quality over quality. In that 19 car,

which he's done a good job of these last years. And so I think it's about just trying to follow the path that gives you the best opportunity to win because at the end of the day, you have to win, right? What got me this ride was winning in the truck series. What will get me to continue here? And I'm not even going to talk about the

other side because that's part of my pack myself this year's blinders on that. Like I don't even care about. I don't even look at the other stuff going on. This is the only thing to me that matters is winning this series. You know, if I win, everything takes care of itself, right? And I think for guys like myself, Josh Barry, you know, we're 32 years old.

Maybe 10, 15 years ago, there was this huge push of younger, younger, younger. I don't know if I get that same sense. And I think people are getting very smart about the analytics of understanding that personally, when I know about myself and what I've seen, I wouldn't hire a driver on the age of 28. I don't even, like, less, it's a will, you know, there's obviously

outliers to everything. But I think predominantly there's a massive benefit to experience in age and the sport. And it's very evident with the analytics that say what the peak ages 39 for an ass court, Cups series driver. There's a reason for that, right? So I think it's a very fascinating thing. And I think the cool thing is you look at what's happening the Cups series and

where the driver is. There's a matter of time because the car is very similar. Obviously the intended and hopeful financial redesign and such that would make a driver even more valuable and performance wise. And you think, all right, you know, Josh Barry right now has a legitimate shot of going to the Cups series. Ryan Turex, if you can get in the full time, Ryan win or

win many races in that car, he might have a legitimate shot of being called the Cups series. Sammy Smith on the up society spectrum, 18 years old. He has a legitimate shot of going to the Cups series because he's winning. So I just think, you know, John Hunter same situation. So it's a really fascinating time in that you have a level talent that are in good

enough rides to go win races. And there's not a flood of Cups drivers in there. But as you put it, it's like, it's not for the big three young 18 20 year olds. It's like a mix of 32 year olds and 18 year old, the 26 year old. It's all over place. And I think it's really fascinating. Austin Hill. I mean, he's what 29 28. So

it's, it's, it's, it's not a big one. It's kind of interesting. But it's still like the pendulum sort of swung back a little bit where we want guys who maybe a little bit more cheer a little bit more experience. I think there's, I think teams have learned. There's an element of professionalism that comes with experience and age, right. It's a, it's a not easy. I don't

say that. But it's maybe a more slightly more enjoyable working relationship work environment. Right. We've gone through a period of a lot of young kids, brash and wrecking, you know, that and that they become a tough thing for these organizations. Who are trying to just perform at a high level. So I think, you know, someone asked me, you'll like this. So the other day at Phoenix,

they were like, sell me on the Xfinney series. And I said, you want to know, it's fun to be up to the Xfinney series in just four races, but I've noticed that I guess I just didn't realize doing the TV side. And I wish I had because I think this would have been the best thing on TV. I said of the top 12, maybe 13, maybe

there's 14 cars and drivers in the Xfinney series. Every single one of them thinks on any given day, they're going to get called to go to the Xfinney series. That's the Xfinney series. And that's why they race so hard. And like, it's like, if I win today, tomorrow, that's the call that comes that gets me to the top level. And I don't know if I really

paid attention to that, but it's a really fascinating thing because you start to realize at the point, the end of this field, there's only one step from there. And that's the Cups. And so it's a very, I think it's a fascinating mentality in the series that it's professional. It's a high level. It's the second, you know, it's one of the biggest in the world, but everyone

there is thinking, but I could get there. Yeah. Because what just happened with Josh, very exactly. And on top of all that, like, it's interesting to me, I just looked this up. And you're 32. He's 32, Ryan, 2X30. It's like everybody's sort of, or not everybody. A lot of these guys, I think, are in that range, where like you said, late 20s, early 30s, now's the

time to make it happen. But at the same time, you're running for big machine racing in the, the number 48. And you just said it blinders on when Josh Barry gets the number nine ride, you're not, you're not even thinking like, hey, what? I thought it was, you know, super cool. The scene be successful. I talked to him at Vegas of the driver intro. It's nice.

I knew, because I went and drove that next gen car for Rick wear it gateway last year with zero SIM. Got a call on Tuesday, hopped in the thing. The thing lit on, you know, our primary car lit on fire and four laps. I got a backup car. And I was running 27th on the lead lap. The only thing I, I to this day, I said

to someone, possibly my brother, the greatest performance that will never have given no one or talked about was that day in that car. Having never driven on those things, never even sat in the seat wasn't my seat. Like it was, there were so many things where I was just like that shouldn't happen. But I just, it was one of those days where I just said, all

right, but like, just do something here. So that was super cool. But the Josh Barry deal. What was even funny to me is watching him go run top 10 and knowing it on the long run there in the, I think it was the end of or in the middle stage three. We had a long run the X-Fingie series, the X-Fingie series race. I was, I he

and all guy I had, I think the newer tires I've ever gotten by me. And then I started to run them back down by a couple of tents and was just catching him to go to the bottom of the pass. When they got caution came out. And I was like, all right, that guy's running top 10 and Cup. I'm just, I'm running him down along on

the backup car. Let's go. Yeah, that's funny. You bring out the wear thing. I just looked that up. I totally forgotten about your cup start there at Gateway. My one next gen experience. Yeah. But it wasn't, you know, despite the, you know, spacious storage room in front, it really does. We met the enfer Vorynx verd to the car. So it was genetically easy. I think you

can, you know, I'm like, I like, like, yes, it does. But it was comfortable. And just by Dr. Vorynx verd, it was comfortable. And it was comfortable. And it was comfortable. And it was okay, fine. But like, let's see, you're doing it in the race against the best drivers. Yeah, best drivers. A backup car that literally got built there. That must be a trend for me.

In literally, they, they was a shell of a car on Saturday and on that day, I'll never, that was the funny story where Cori, the joy walked up to me as my car is sitting there smoldering beside the garage. And he said, welcome back to the show. Another guy who fits right into this conversation. Great, great. Yeah, he's kicking ass too, man. It's cool. It's cool

to see. Yeah. Maybe we can all end up there one day. Who knows? It's competitive time. If they ever, I know we had the race to championship show, but one of these days, someone's going to make, there is a cutthroat and brutal sense to what's about to occur. I think to be one of those 36 drivers in cup. If the next four or five years, it's

going to be immensely tough. And if you're there, it will be very rewarding, but also excruciating the high pressure. It's like it's time for another drive to survive and ask car style, but maybe. You've done this way. See, something illustrates it that way. All right, before I let you get out of here, speaking of drive to survive, I know Atlanta's coming up next for you, but

you mentioned Coda. Are you sticking around for the cup race? It Coda? I guess I didn't even think about that because of Jensen being there. I mean, Kimmy, I guess somebody like yourself, I just figured if there's ever going to be a race, you're going to stick around for it. Be this one. I know I would love to. I just, my travel has been so crazy

the last, you know, I've been living out of my, my carry on bag for six weeks. So I have a, washer dryer, but it's very tough. I was thinking of trying to go and Monday's Mondays are highly important. It's my busiest day of the week. We do meetings and simulator posts and pre and like, it's a very busy day. So it's TVD. I guess. Yeah, TVD.

I think I'll probably come home. Yeah. And then I will be a, I guess you'll see those guys there that that weekend. I, yeah, I mean, there'll be around. I won't have a single moment. That's the last year when I did the truck. It's been on the city. You know, it's back to back practice qualifying, practice qualifying. And then it's back to back races. But it

like, I think last year, like 15 minutes between I ate a banana and chug some water and jumped in the car. And that's a long day. So I don't know. We'll see. But I've pumped to see. That's cool. Like Jensen coming, Kimmy coming. Right. I'm telling you Jimmy's in the race. Taylor's in the race. Taylor's this is wild. Connor Daley is in the race. It's just

like, oh cool. Like, how did the stars align for like these five guys to be in two of them and making their cup debut in a cup race. It's spectacular. And I'm telling you, my level of confidence in that NASCAR is just sitting on a, a powder cake of, of opportunity and possibility in the next couple of years is just more and bold than by what

we're seeing here. And my sister who's L.A. based on all her friends, I ever wanted to come to the races and all this stuff. And she gets, you know, she's very entwined with the music world and social media influencers and all these people. And everyone was just like, wow, I'd love to go to a NASCAR. Like NASCAR looks so cool. Uh, yeah. I mean, I'm sure

that I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love

it. And I'm like, just give it time. Give it time. Once we make them care, we got to get people to care. But once they care, you know, I love F one. And it's been my favorite thing for a long time. But they amazing thing about what is current there is that people care highly about the reality show aspect of it. But all right. But the

actual product, the thing they, everything centers around is not the most compelling thing on the planet. It is if you know what to look for, but it's not the most compelling. It's like, I'm sitting here being like, the story lines, the pressure of what's about what's occurring in a cup series is 10x or 100x. The level was hoping to happen over there. There's more stories, more

people, more opportunity for stories. And you have an on track, a product that I believe is far superior in terms entertainment. So. The story writes itself as we like to say in my biz. If we solve all the ingredients are there. Yeah. You guys tell it. So it's it's available. But I'm excited to be at least a fringe part of it. Right now. And hopefully I

will be a main story by the end of the year of the X-Men series. But it's it's been a blast. And you know, it's just super cool. Have an opportunity. We're enjoying falling. So you're never a fringe player in our world. Thanks for as always for being a part of the NASCAR NBC podcast. Parker is good to see you again. Appreciate buddy. Thank you. We appreciate

Parker. Kligerman for joining us on the NASCAR NBC podcast. Thanks to motorsports manager Emily Convoy for coordinating this episode. And again, thanks to Parker for giving up an hour of his very busy schedule to stop by the NASCAR NBC Sports Charlotte studio to make this happen. As always, you can find more news, columns and analysis on NASCAR talk and motor sports talk on NBC sports.com. Please

visit NBC sports.com slash NASCAR or NBC sports.com slash motors. If you have any NASCAR NBC podcast feedback, you can send to me on Twitter. At Nate Ryan is my handle. Thanks again for listening to the NASCAR NBC.com. And I'm going to be a part of the story. NASCAR NBC podcast.