Parker Kligerman's playoff dreams slip away in overtime restart

CONCORD, N.C. — Parker Kligerman was inches away from winning his way into the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.

Instead, the yellow flag waved just before Kligerman took the white flag at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. Had Kligerman crossed the start/finish line after the white flag waved, a caution would have sealed the victory and propelled him into the next round of the postseason. But because he hadn’t yet hit the stripe, what happened next was a restart in NASCAR Overtime in which he was bested by Sam Mayer, who took that checkered flag, trophy and playoff spot instead.

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Kligerman has never won in the Xfinity Series. He announced in Sept. 12 — exactly a month ago — that this campaign will be the final season of his full-time racing career. The emotion as he sat atop his window after the race soaking in the defeat and watching Mayer’s smoke-show celebration was palpable.

“This hurts,” Kligerman said. “I said on the cooldown lap I want to cry, but I won’t, and it’s gotten close a couple times as I think about it. I just, I’ve really loved doing this, and I’ve been so grateful to have the opportunity to be here and to be at this level and to make a career doing this. And I just love the intensity and the pressure. And I really, really wanted that.

“I just felt like that was a poetic — if I could just do one thing, it would have been winning this damn race in that fashion, holding off some of the best in the world in SVG (Shane van Gisbergen), and AJ (Allmendinger), Sam Mayer, who’s a Roval master now. I thought I was driving at the highest level I’ve ever driven, and I didn’t get it done.”

This story will be updated.