Kyle Busch Motorsports Nationwide Series driver Parker Kligerman will have someone special cheering him on when the Royal Purple 300 goes green at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California on Saturday: his 90-year-old grandmother Doris, who Kligerman refers to as “Grandma Dottie.”
“I’m really excited that “Grandma Dottie” will be in the stands on Saturday,” said Kligerman on the KBM website. “She probably wondered what I was doing at the beginning of my racing career, but she’s always been one of my biggest supporters. Out of all my fans, she is probably the one that is watching my races most intensely and taking the best notes – maybe even better than the notes we take.”
Kligerman, driving the No. 77 Toyota Camry on Saturday, has just one start at the two-mile track, a Nationwide Series start back in spring of 2010 that ended in a 22nd-place finish.
“California is a track that I haven’t raced at a lot, I’ve only raced there once back in 2010 and it really wasn’t the greatest of runs for me,” said Kligerman. “I enjoyed the track, it reminded me a lot of Michigan, which is a track that I’ve had a lot of success at. There are a lot of bumps and a lot of tire wear at California, which are things that separate the guys that know how to race from the guys that don’t. It’s a track where you really have to communicate with your crew chief to figure out the car and get through the bumps. I think that Eric (Phillips, crew chief) and I will be able to do that and hopefully we can come away with a victory.”
Phillips hasn’t been to Auto Club Raceway as a crew chief since 2009, but doesn’t expect things to be too much different.
“I don’t think that it will be any different than the first four races of the season, because we really don’t have a lot of notes to go off with our Nationwide Series cars,” said Phillips. “The last time I was at California, it was hot, it was rough and you fought with grip – I suspect that it is going to be the same old California this weekend.”
Qualifying for the Nationwide Series Royal Purple 300 takes place Saturday at 10:35 a.m. PT, followed by the green flag at 2 p.m. PT. Stay up-to-date at www.nascar.com and www.kylebuschmotorsports.com.
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