NASCAR official touches on Parker Kligerman DQ at Daytona, the appeal, Elton Sawyer disappointment

Parker Kligerman‘s disqualification at the Daytona Truck Series race last weekend didn’t sit well with the NASCAR community. On the Hauler Talk podcast, Mike Forde, NASCAR’s managing director of Racing Communication, shared his thoughts on the Kligerman being disqualified after winning the race.

“If you listen to Elton Sawyer on SiriusXM this Tuesday morning, he said Seth Kramlich, the managing director of the Truck Series, called him to let him know about the DQ,” Forde said. “I think Elton’s quote was ‘That was not a call I wanted to hear. That’s not news I wanted to hear.’

“It was a bummer. He was excited, that team has been in the sport forever, it was absolutely a bummer. But our job is to make an equitable garage and level playing field and uphold the rules that are in the rulebook. Unfortunately, it was too low in the rear and it’s pretty black and white.”

NASCAR officials will share more on Parker Kligerman next week

Forde does the Hauler Talk podcast with Amanda Ellis, NASCAR’s senior director of racing communications, and Nate Ryan, a journalist for NASCAR.com. They talked about the appeal that Kligerman and Henderson Motorsports lost on Thursday. Ellis said they had the right to an appeal and will share more on the situation in next week’s episode.

Parker Kilgerman drove the No. 75 Chevrolet for Henderson Motorsports at Daytona and was disqualified after NASCAR discovered his truck was too low in a postrace inspection. That led to Corey Heim being named the winner of the race.

After learning about his disqualification, Kligerman sent a message on social media. “Biggest win of my life. Thank you all for the wonderful messages,” Kligerman wrote. “Over 700 texts. I will not be commenting any further until we are able to present what I believe is a very, very valid case. Until then, I’m fully focused on my job with [The CW Sports] and [NASCAR Xfinity Series] because the drivers and teams deserve the full focus on the massive stage ahead of them.”

Kligerman retired from full-time racing at the end of last season. He spent the last two years competing full-time in the Xfinity Series and finished 10th in the standings in both seasons. Kligerman also competed in 30 Cup Series races, including two Daytona 500 appearances in 2014 and 2019.