Parker Kligerman

This is, is off track.

I love this. I love this setup.

I Parker, I gotta be honest, man.

Most people that we interview on this show, they come on on their cell phones with their AirPods and you know, they're like in their car, maybe in their, maybe in a hotel room.

If you're a Pado, you're still in bed.

If you're Pado, you're still in bed. Whoa.

You being quite popular actually, I think.

Yeah, that's true actually. That's his move.

That's his move. He knows what he's

Doing.

He knows his audience. But you,

you've got this incredible setup, a nicer microphone than any of us.

And, uh, I feel lesser than if I'm honest.

Well, it's the Spider-Man meme, you know, like, you've got a podcast.

I got a podcast. . We'll go on somebody else's podcast.

Hey, you mind if we just like, uh, promote my podcast on your podcast and I'll use my mic to show that I have a podcast. Yeah, it's that

Cool.

It's so true. Yeah. Look, look at the very not so subtle

advertising I do on everything that every video call it just got a nice little subtle off track sticker there.

Do you use that for like, video calls when you're like zooming people Really Every time?

Yeah. Well, it's just, I feel too awkward about it.

Just better quality. Yeah, that's fair. I just, I use this,

I Use ass funny, the Flex some.

Yeah, well, sometimes I'll like, it's always there 'cause that's just where it lives.

But sometimes I won't actually use it, but it's just sitting there and it looks like I'm using it and they don't even realize I'm not using it, which I don't know if is a good or a bad thing.

Hmm. But yeah.

Anyway, uh, in a rare Tuesday episode of Off Track with Hinch and Rossi, uh, we're delighted to welcome Parker Kligerman to the show.

Um, welcome buddy.

Thank you. I'm honored to be here.

I was just saying, I didn't know Rossi was gonna show up.

I was, I was fully expecting this just to be you and I chatty .

I I wanted to, I knew this was me, the one of the ones, he's like, no, no, no, I ain't that guy.

Sorry. I don't know what but, uh, you know, I, I'm,

I'm in the presence, Andy 500 winner.

I mean, I just feel like I've, I feel like I am honored.

I'm, I don't know, I'm overwhelmed with the, I'm sweating a little bit.

I'm just, I feel uncomfortable.

Yeah. So I want to give people a little bit

of a background before I ask the question that I really want to ask.

So Parker and I have actually known each other for well over a decade at this point.

Um, man, it must be two decades, right?

Yeah. You want to, how long ago that was .

It's approaching two decades . Um,

And We, We raced together in, uh, a championship called Formula tr and it used the, uh, Reno 1.6, uh,

like European race cars and engines.

And there was also the Reno Euro Cup, like two liter that were kind of the class above us.

But this was like, kind of like the American, uh, junior formula, Reno championship.

Um, Parker beat me. He won the championship.

Uh, I finished I think second or third. I don't really remember.

Think somewhere in there. I don't

Remember somewhere in there.

Um, it was only, I Don't keep track of who's behind me.

Come on. We, we had some, we had some, some good battles.

We, we obviously went different directions.

Uh, I went to Europe. He's, he,

he's chased a dream here in the States.

But the question that I have is, is well beyond that.

Um, I follow you on Instagram.

I saw at the end of last year kind of a very emotional post and, and description and everything about how kind of your, your journey was, was moving on, um, racing, that, that kind of chapter was closing, that door was closing and full time.

Well, hold on.

I think it's going, oh, I'm gonna be honest, I didn't read the whole thing.

I just kind of scrolled and got some Cliff notes.

I was like, oh, that's really sad. Because Parker's always

been, you know, that story of, that, that guy that hasn't necessarily had all of the full budget to, to be with the top teams, but has pulled together some amazing results with some of the smaller teams.

Um, and you know, obviously doing what you can to make it ends meet and still be a face in the paddock with your presenting roles and your pit lane reporter roles.

And, and always someone that, you know, I had a lot of respect for, for, for doing that.

So it was a sad thing for it, what I thought was the end of your journey.

And then you show up at Daytona and I'm like, wait a second.

was that for likes? He didn't retire .

Like, he, he's not done.

Like, so what, walk us through the end of last year and like, what is, what has happened since then?

He just saw TK pull it off, so well retiring five or six times the Opportunities.

Yeah. Well, and on the NASCAR side,

Mark Martin did it a couple times.

Rusty Wallace, I mean Jimmy Johnsons, you know, he was done pretend T-shirt lines. Yeah.

It's literally, yeah, you just wanna sell some merch so you're like, hey, this is the end.

But not really. No.

For, for me, I think Kinch pointed out it was the end of the fulltime journey.

You know, I tried, I've been in and out, in and out, but I finally got back full time and then, you know, I just knew there was a lot of things happening in the media side, and it was, for me, sort of one of those things where I was looking at sort of, okay, what does the next couple years look like and what's the next five years look like?

And is there a path to cup and is there a path to a, a ride I'd want to be in, in cup and that sort of thing.

And it just, it was looking less and less likely.

And a lot of the conversations I had were really centered around the funding side.

And so it was just was one of those moments where I knew there was a lot of opportunity coming on the media side, and I felt like I had to kind of put that to bed and to really commit on the media side to get some of the roles I wanted, which I ended up getting.

And um, you know, I, I think with that though, I made it very clear if you read the whole thing, if you got to the, if you got to the second part of the, the second paragraph, not a Patient man, he didn't read, He didn't read the whole thing.

It says full time. I still wanted to race a little bit

and I, you know, I still wanted to dabble and scratch that itch.

Um, and so, you know, that's kind of what I was able to put together this year of doing the Rolex for the first time, which was awesome.

Yep. Um, and then, you know, I always planned to try

and do a handful of truck races, just really, you know, it's even like an aid on the, on the, uh, media side because it just keeps you relevant, keeps you thinking about these things.

And, and so driving a race car is never bad for that side.

And it's pretty easy lift when I'm already there for the weekend of doing tv.

So the way the schedule works, there's a couple that work and you know, I'm gonna keep doing those.

But yeah, I, I think there was a little, if you didn't read the whole thing, that would've been surprising and confusing.

Um, but you know, now I know for you it's, I gotta get that, that note like, that put out in the first sentence pretty like, like read your face and then, and then from there it's like, okay, if you want to keep reading, here's the rest. Why.

Yeah. If you wanna get, if you wanna read the emotional

side, we, let's get the hard facts outta the way and some bullet points early, right?

Uh, it's like the, it's like the subheading in an article, right?

You got your headline and then it's Like, listen, I just consume news like a normal American One scroll at a time, Just Headlines only just, just read a headline and think I know it all And move on .

So, so that's, but that's, that's a that's a good point, Parker.

So are, is it safe to say, or is it accurate to say that had the media landscape and NASCAR not been changing so dramatically for 2025 and thus these opportunities, you know, coming up for, for those that don't know the media rights were up at the end of 24 for nascar, they ended up with this blockbuster program of going from two broadcasters to four broadcasters, which created a lot of opportunity for on-air talent, et cetera, et cetera.

If this was just another year in the same old NBC Fox split, would you have been as, would it have had the same draw, like the same pull of being like, all right, maybe my, my brain has to think of the future here a little bit more?

Or would you maybe have tried to, you know, piece something together else, you know, something else together in the, in the racing side?

Um, you know, that's a good question. I don't know.

I can't really say, right, because that's, that's the moment I was in and it was the discussions that were happening and I, it was what's going through my brain.

Um, and I, And I ask, 'cause I, 'cause I've been there, right?

Yeah. You went through this and I, I'll say this,

like none of these were done.

I just sort of, and it, and when I made that decision, it was actually midway through last year and, and it was right when we were our west coast swing between Portland and Sonoma.

And I just, I dunno, I had one of those moments where I was just like, I don't know if this happened to you, but I just kind of was thinking to myself and talking through the future and going through, you know, the motions of like, okay, what, you know, this is contract time, what are we thinking?

And, and that sort of thing. And I just had this moment

of like, I think I'm good and I didn't want to commit to try, you know, what it was gonna take to get to Cup or to keep going full-time Xfinity and the sacrifice I had to make to do there to do that and, you know, just personally and professionally.

And so these were coming along and I felt like that maybe pushed me over the edge, but I don't know, I think it was a pretty powerful feeling that I'd chased this thing for a long time.

As, as, uh, Alex alluded to, we first were driving cars together over 20 years ago, so, uh, although that wouldn't have been 20, it would've been 19 years ago.

Would've been 19 this time. Yeah.

So I mean, it was, it's been a long journey.

It's not like a fly by night thing.

None of us get into this and go this long without it feeling like it's been a long journey .

Um, and so I don't, I don't know, I I can't answer that without, you know, having been in that moment other than to say that it was a, it was probably a more personal and larger decision than just the, you know, the job and professional side.

Right. Okay.

So, so you step back from a full-time racing on the, on the stock car side of things.

And then as Alex alluded to, you know, you all of a sudden pop up in Daytona.

I mean, it was all of a sudden for me, we had talked about it, but you get this opportunity now to go sports car racing, Which, which let's talk about, which, let's talk about the fact that, so I know for a fact this, this race has been like a dream of your race of yours for a long time to compete in.

You know, I, I would talk to you kind of leading up to the, to the event during the roar of, of the daytona's that I had done and you always, you know, had such an enthusiasm for it.

And were just so interested in like all of that, that dynamics around what makes that race.

So I was thrilled for you when I saw that you were competing and you're on the TV also on a broadcast, but also driving race, car, whatever, I dunno how you guys do it, that's great for you, .

Um, but but how did that come to be?

Was that something that you were chasing because like just the date lined up?

Did, was that something that was a last minute deal?

Why Lamborghini? Why forte?

Like, walk us through how that came to be and like, you know, a dream for you kind of came true.

Yeah, I know Hinch and I talked about this too last, uh, month and um, you know, it was doing the TV side for the Rolex for like five or six years there with NBC.

And all the times I'd talked to you about it, you know, I'd always watched the race.

I love endurance racing. I think it's some

of the coolest racing out there.

Always paid attention, especially when I was younger.

I would watch all the 24 hours Lamar, like, I'd stay up the entire 24 hours.

I'd do the same with Rolex and I just always wanted to do it.

I just, through most of my time in that all season period, when you have to get this done right as the NASCAR season's ending, you have to kinda have these deals done.

I would have to be working on the next NASCAR deal, right?

So it was like, never did I have the, the brain power or the bandwidth to be like, all right, I gotta focus on getting the Rolex, you know, getting this locked in.

I came so close so many times and it just never really could come together.

And then doing the TV side, I just even got more invigorated with it.

I was like, man, I gotta do this.

I'd be standing on pit road watching you Alex, jump in there, James.

And I'd be like, I, it'd be like 2:00 AM and I'd be like, damn, why am I not one of them?

Like why am I not doing that?

So I just really, really wanna make it happen.

And when this all went down, you know, stepping back from full time and stepping back, stepping back from big machine racing, uh, last year, Scott bta and I had a, a meeting where it was just like, Hey, is there still some cool stuff we could go and try to accomplish together that isn't trying to do, you know, this full time endeavor?

And immediately he and I both looked to each and were like, let's do the Rolex.

So he was a huge help.

And without his support and spike cores, you know, I don't think it comes together in any fashion or form.

And then Forte was because of, uh, Bob Perona, who I know James, you know well, and Alex, you know, so he was worked to me for years with my coach Trevor.

He's working there with Misha Goberg and you know, they wanted to assemble a four person team and we're evaluating different drivers and obviously budget always helps.

And it kind of came together and it was looking like, um, you know, as we went through the roar, well actually our first test in December, I got up to speed pretty quickly even though it was like a big jump and a massive jump from like a stock car in almost every fashion. And then, but

Let, let me interrupt you right there.

Yeah, so huge jump from a, from a stock car, but like not a huge jump from what you grew up racing.

So like, did any of that muscle memory come back at all or did you have to like unlearn a lot of habits, I imagine?

Ah, it's, it's actually a great question.

So some of it did, there's like little things that came back, but I think being 34 instead of 24 and a little bit like I had just driven stock cars now for 15 years consecutively, right?

And ne the only thing, like when I went and did the indie lights test back in 2014, when that cup team folded, that was like a really easy transition back to feeling like I wasn't fulling my tr car.

Like I felt all that came back immediately, but forever reason, you know, fast forward another 10 years, I definitely had some stock car habits, am I braking and what I'm trying to make the car do and what I'm waiting on it and those sorts of things.

And so I, I'll just give you the quick story that you guys understand and, and Hinch and I talked about this, but brake pressure, like in a stock car, the highest brake pressure you're gonna get two is around 1200 pounds, which I don't know the bar conversion, but I know 80 maybe.

And at any road course.

And then in this car we get there on that first day and like the, the pro is like 1800 pounds of pressure.

And I'm like, uh, what? , , wait a second, hold on. What?

And so I went around, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna smash this brake.

And at the end of my second day we, we had some data issues, we finally get to look at it and my peak was 1,250 pounds. , .

I had some more, an extra 50 pounds man. Yeah baby.

I gave it everything I got a little more, uh, it's like all my ex-girlfriends would say, but the, Yeah, Tim gets that.

Tim gets it The nonstop over the course of the roar and everything else.

Like I got closer, but I could never, it was funny 'cause we left the test and I left all like super confident this, I've got this, this is easy, how hard could it be?

We showed up for the roar and I felt like I was back at square one.

Like I don't know if the, the track grip level changes.

You got all the traffic suddenly it's like far more serious and I had to do like serious work to get faster and get back up to speed.

But, um, you know, it it, driving wise, like it became, it's become more and more like second nature where I've jumped in the car again.

'cause I went and did a test for Sebring for two days and immediately there I was at like 1500 pounds of pressure right off the bat into seven.

So like, it, it's getting there, but to your point, it, it definitely took like longer than I expected.

And, and you know, some of that might just be, that took, it's been 19 years since I drove those open cars. Yeah.

Fair. So you talk about the big jump in terms

of like the driving of the car, the capabilities of the car, what you have to do, you know, to get the laptop out of it.

But then there's also the fact that mascar are by and large, fairly kind of rudimentary in the cockpit in terms of what you have to play with and look at and, and adjust, right?

The steering wheel of a stock car looks very different than the steering wheel of a, of a GT three, you know, Lamborghini .

Yeah. So like how, how much of a challenge,

'cause you know, coming from the IndyCar side, our steering wheels are fairly complex.

There's enough buttons, there's multiple dash pages, all this sort of stuff, whatever, even I get into a GT three car and the, the level of technology that's in those things, like greatly eclipses what's in an IndyCar currently.

And I'm like, uh, okay let me just try to re you know, learn how to regurgitate all these different things.

How hard was it from that side?

Just like the, the driver input side from from buttons and switches and dash positions and all that stuff?

Oh my god. I mean the only thing

that held is I racing . Like

That was good. That was my next

question, , because it's the only thing I ever had that had like that much adjustment.

And so I like built that into the stream wheel I have at iRacing and tried to memorize some of that stuff and used some of it.

But I mean, you know, for most of my time at the Rolex I focused on just like pure driving and trying to learn traffic and just trying to like learn the basics.

And then I started to add that stuff in and by the time we got in the race, like I felt comfortable making adjustments in terms of your track control and you know, adjusting your engine braking and that sort of stuff.

And I knew the, the, all the, the systems.

But definitely like the, the weirdest transition for me in terms of mentality was that in stock car racing, when your car is not handling the way you want on a certain run, that means you have to change what you're doing in the car because it's not gonna change.

You have to change either the line you're running, the way you're driving the car, you've gotta make it do something different to achieve lap time.

In these, what I became very apparent was that when you start to feel the car, start doing something different, don't adjust.

You just start turning those knobs, turning those adjustments, start Flipping, switch the car and stuff. Yeah.

Just start changing things and keep trying to drive it the best, you know, the quote unquote best way, right?

So it's like that was, uh, that was a definite difference for me.

But you know, I felt like that got easier as the weekends went on.

'cause you kind of get closer and closer to like, this is sort of the area the car wants to be and it's gonna be pretty close.

But especially when you first started, it was a ton of stuff to learn And, and like when you first start just funda that the fundamentals are taking all your bandwidth.

Right? Exactly. And so the fine tuning's impossible,

like I remember the first run at the roar, you know, my teammates talking about, well yeah, on lap two I moved this to that and then by lap three I was changing this to that for the corner six I was doing this and I'm like, I don't even know what gear I'm in in each corner.

just pump the brakes there pal.

But then you, you fast forward to the race and you're, you know, in hour two of a double stint and you've been in the car for 90 minutes and now you're like fine tuning things corner to corner.

You're like, oh, okay, now I get it.

But it's just, it's so overwhelming when you first get in the car and With all the OnTrack you have, you don't get a lot of time in the car.

Like, I don't know if it's the same in the prototype, Alex, but like, I don't know if you did you do identical.

Did did I do.

Well, so, so what I was gonna ask, did you have the same feeling that James and I have had in the past?

Like you don't feel like you are at all prepared whatsoever until you get into like your second stint and you're a little settled in hour three.

'cause like before that you don't see new tires, you don't, you don't really see anything other than you hop in for 10 minutes, there's yell flag that disrupts it, you know, whatever.

So, um, good.

So it's not just us, uh, that feel completely ill prepared going into the largest, uh, American sports car race on the calendar.

I'm Glad you said it because , that's Exactly how I felt.

I was like, I feel, I feel like I'd done crammed for a test.

But you get through those really you think, you look ahead of time, you're like, oh my God, there's so much on track time, I'm gonna be like, you know, this would be second nature so I could do it blindfolded.

But then you get through the weekend, you're like, I've done like 12 laps.

Like what? Right. Wait a second.

Four drivers all have to get that same amount of time.

Right? It's just tough. And

I'm like, am I fast?

I don't know. I was on a different set of tires.

I was on a different fuel.

I was at a different time of the track.

I have no idea it was fast or slow. Like I guess I'm good.

They're like, Hey, you're doing a great job.

I'm like, okay, how do you if you say so?

Yeah, If you figure that out, I don't know how.

So like I definitely felt that a hundred percent.

And then you get in the race and it's like you finally get those two stints in a row and suddenly it's like, oh, okay, it's just a race car racetrack.

Like I just gotta do what I gotta do. Yeah.

And you can reference off others and that sort of thing.

The only last thing I'll say is that it's been so funny to me, it's trying to remember how to start the damn thing.

So you have like auto launch, you know? Yeah.

And like that is just So In a different realm than what we're, you know.

So literally before I got in the car for the first stint I did in the race, I had to ask them.

I was like, Hey, just reminder when I get in the car and I press this auto down and I push this button and when it drops, it will launch.

Yes. Okay, good. Just making sure. Thanks.

So like that, those, those types of systems were just so foreign to me.

Parker, I'm gonna be totally honest with you.

I just refuse to learn the launch part. What?

Because I'm like, guys, there's too much going on.

There's a clutch and a throttle.

I can get the car outta the box. I don't need this.

This is not gonna win us the race or lose us.

The ra I'm doing the graveyard shift.

It doesn't matter if I screw it up, it's gonna cost us a lot more time than the 10th and a half that it's fast for me.

Just drop dropping the cloud. I'm not doing it.

Stop . Wow. I I I mean too much. I get it.

I I I did it, so I just want to like put it out there.

Um, but yeah, no, I I am, I'm actually, I'm slightly disappointed in you. I don't know. That's

Yeah, I mean, compar with comparable systems too. I mean it was the same car,

So Oh, it was identical.

Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty identical.

Pretty, pretty sad that you came from a McLaren James and you couldn't figure out how to work a Lamborghini launch control. Uh,

Dude, the McLaren had zero systems.

You know that McLaren still had Dude, it had a pedal clutch.

It had a foot clutch. It didn't, like

It didn't even have, it didn't even have telemetry.

No, but that thing was like a didn't even, formula didn't Even have lap time.

It was a skip barber car man. Like what are you talking

About?

You a skip barber when you would like tape your aim little like micron thing with like the duct tape around.

Yeah, it was, it was that. Wait,

Is that, that like you had Declar, an indie car has no systems either.

Oh no, I'm just kidding. Sorry. Sorry.

Not my problem anymore. . Depends on the day.

Uh, okay, so Sea Brigg or sorry, uh, Daytona was, was going well, it didn't end the way you wanted to, but that's, that's Daytona.

That happens for all but four cars on track. Hey, how

Close are we in lap time again? What,

What did Oh, it was like half a 10th or something.

No, I think you had me by a 10th. 10th and a half is

10th.

Okay. Tv But

You Only did two hours, right? Well

Yeah, I I only did two stints. Yeah, I did

Five and a half. So that's, you know,

A wait For you by a big Time.

This was Townsend, Townsend trying to uh, try to like say how impressive his performance was.

'cause he was looking at the data and I think I did like 66 laps in the race.

He did 193.

I'm like, I got one set of new tires and 66 laps.

You did almost 205 sets of tires. I was like, screw you man.

That's not apples to apples.

I'm not impressed by him in that sense. He showed me way faster.

Well, I mean that, that sounds like Townsend.

So, okay, so you end, maybe not you end date, you end the 24 hours.

Daytona disappointed. Yes.

But then I mean we need to address the elephant in the room.

We're back at Daytona. You went back to Daytona.

You can just call me Tim.

And, and I'm not, I'm not even gonna try and, um, explain to listeners what happened.

So why don't you start us with what race it was, where you qualified, where you finished, and then what has happened since then.

So I did the Daytona truck race, which for all three, the NASCAR national series.

For those that don't know the day, the first Daytona is the biggest race for all three.

So you have the Daytona 500 for cup, which everyone knows Xfinity is the biggest race and it's the biggest race for trucks because all those other two races pay more than double any other race in this series.

So for Xfinity, there's 32 more races that don't pay anything close to this.

It's same for trucks. It's by far the

Biggest and more people are watching.

Yeah, it's the first weekend of the season ratings.

Everyone's hyped up. It's got the name. Yep.

Most famous track everything A hundred percent.

And it states I just go to money.

'cause I think it's a really easy way to be like, conceptualize this.

Sure. These these three races are worth more

than anything else in nascar.

So besides winning a championship, but um, yeah, so we go do this race, it's with the 75 truck, which I have raced for for now six or seven years in a part-time capacity.

They're the reason that I got to the full-time ride with big machine racing.

They, you know, we've won Talladega before we won MidOhio.

We've had an incredible run of results over the last couple years for a part-time team.

Um, and we kind of came back together, Scott with Spike coolers came on board for Daytona, which looked a lot like Mike Xfinity Carr for the last two years, which was super cool.

And, and he and I did it because we, we had a joke that was like, it was the Parker and Scott Redemption tour to finally get a checkered flag.

Like we hadn't won together in the Xfinity car.

We came so close so many times. Which, which

Again, you did, but we won't even get into the Charlotte thing because that one still pisses me off. But yes, sorry,

That was brutal.

That was brutal. So we, we, we wanted to do a couple races

that we could just be like, Hey, let's go get a checkered five together, finally get it done.

And we got in this race qualified 23rd, uh, with the Hendersons.

And we, we normally at the soup speed bays don't qualify that well.

But I've always had a joke that the best soups speedway cars qualify between 12th and 22nd.

I don't know why, but they do. We qualified 23rd.

So I'm stretching that out because what happens is we end up going winning the race.

Um, we had just a, it was a great truck.

It was not, it was awesome. Yeah.

And it wasn't like we were, you know, we didn't lead a ton of laps, but I could just keep it in the front of the draft most of the, of the night.

And we, you know, what I look for in a really good super speedway car or truck and NASCAR is the ability to literally suck up to the rear bumper of a car in front of you and attach or push them.

And the ease at which you do that is the mark of a good car.

Not, and it's not to me the one that leads the most laps or anything.

It's the one that can literally do that pushing because especially for smaller teams, if you're a bigger team who has all the resources you want to just have the fastest vehicle possible and lead.

But 99% of my time in my career, I've spent smaller teams where because of the draft, we have an outsized chance compared to anywhere else.

And because of that, you know, what I'm looking for is a car that can just ma allow me to make a lot of moves that put us in the best position, which this one did.

We got there, we won the race.

I'm in the media center, I'm walking outta the media center after doing all the media and the NASCAR PR group calls, uh, Dana Haslin, who's the Chevy PR person, and tells me that my truck has been dd for heights.

So this gets very technical, but I'll try to make it really simple.

A NASCAR in the trucks in Xfinity goes to what's called heights.

And essentially they put on these, these, um, apparatus that measure the height of the rear spoiler and they measure the front splitter.

And that kind of gives the, the ride, you know, gives them an idea of where the ride height is, where the, the car is sitting static.

And this is part of ride height rules, which sort of mimic the idea of a, of a a normal road car, right?

That sits at a certain level, not sucked to the ground.

And in the pre-race you do it one way, which is that you roll your truck up there, you can literally, you unhook the front shocks and you can set the front end at a height, which then puts the rear end at a height and you have certain measurements you have to be at.

And then you pass that and you go race.

And then after the race they do a similar process but different, which we discovered, um, where they don't, they want you to set your front end of the vehicle before you go on the height sticks to, and you are allowed more tolerance.

You're allowed of a lower in the front, higher in the rear sort of thing, or lower in both actually.

And we got the facts are our team, but one, my crew chief wasn't there, he was in the media center of me.

So we didn't have a personal authority.

Our car chief wasn't there because he had been ejected the day before.

Our normal mechanics went through this process and they were told to, what they heard was unhook the shocks and lift up the front end, which then after they did that, they were told they couldn't touch the front of the truck.

So it went up on the heights.

The front end was nine feet in the air, which made the rear low.

We failed heights and uh, we don't get the win.

So I hope that was as simple as I could make it.

I I know that's a lot to take in and a lot of technical, so It's a procedural error essentially.

Essentially, you know, I see their side, which is, you know, the truck when measured as it was presented, failed, which I get on NASCAR's side.

That makes total sense.

It's unfortunate though, was that we had never been through this process because they changed it in February, 2023.

And my team had never finished in the top five in that entire time.

So they'd never even been through this to know how this process is done.

And the instruction from the official, although not entirely incorrect, was slightly incorrect.

Um, if you didn't know the process.

And you know, to give you a full background on that, when the truck was up there and they realized, they were like, oh, well in pre-race we can just lower the front end.

And they're like, no, you can't touch it now.

So it's a lot of miscommunication.

So in, in a perfect world, what would've happened is the shocks wouldn't have been unhooked prior to this Process.

No. They would've been un process,

no, they would've been unhooked.

But in a perfect world, the way a stock car works is that you can literally, when you unhook the shocks, uh, an infinity or a cup car or a truck, you can literally lift the front end or push it and it will sit where you put it because of the way the springs work and the suspension geometry and Touch.

Right? So there's there's a way, there's a way to do it.

Yeah. To optimize everything. Yeah. Got it. Okay.

And that sucks, man, that Yeah.

And what we should have done is if we had known or had the correct instruction, whatever way we wanna look at it, you know, we would've set the front to five and a half inches, right.

Which is like the minimum or a little higher.

And we would've passed by a mile in the rear. So,

So what, what's I, what's important is when the car was in race back when the truck was in race, back and on the racetrack, totally, it, it fully conforms to the rules and there was no advantage whatsoever.

It was a procedural error in tech, which again, I see your point and you're being very big about the fact that like, as presented black and white, it did not pass.

I get it. But spirit of the rules,

it's, that's where it gets tough.

Right? And, and then we

talked about this after the fact, man.

I mean, well let me ask this for like, would you say that was the biggest win of your career?

Yeah, definitely. Yep.

And like, your interview was the best, your interview was awesome.

Just the enthusiasm, the energy and, and this is what we talked about after the fact is look, tech is tech and fine points.

You're not full-time. You don't care.

The prize money check probably sucks to not get fine.

But at the end of the day, like winning is about that moment.

And you got that moment, you earned that moment.

You deserve that moment. And you got that moment.

This was not like Charlotte when you got boned still on track and didn't get that moment.

Yep. You drove, you drove well enough to win that race,

you won that race and you've got that moment.

And that's what I think is the important thing to hang on to.

I appreciate it, thank you. Yeah, no,

I mean we'll always have the memories.

I still have the checkered flag, so I keep that.

I don't, you know, you may or may not know that I do this celebration where I like plant the flag in the ground when I win.

And so I kept that flag.

Um, and you know, we'll yeah, we'll always have the memories.

We know we crossed the finish line first.

I know on track the truck was entirely legal.

It was legal beforehand and it raced entirely legal.

If given the chance just to set the front end correctly, it would've passed post race tech with flying color.

So it's, it's like, yes, it hurts Again, I don't know, I think this one hurts more than the Roe V for a lot of reasons.

You know, I think the Roe v situation was a bit of just bad timing on NASCAR's part and you know, a missed them, not quite seen erect when they should have and that sort of thing.

So I could understand it more. This one just hurts.

Um, because it's like, I, I was saying to someone, I was like, I thought the hardest part of winning a race was winning the damn race .

And actually it's, it's winning the race, then going through tech and then going through an appeal process for four or five days.

That by the way took every ounce of my energy and, and mental, um, fortitude because it, it, like for 24 7 we were gathering information and, and you know, witnesses and appeal and putting this whole document together.

And it was such a crazy couple days that I was like, this is the hardest race I've ever had to win in my life and I don't even know if I'm gonna win it.

So Yeah, it's, uh, it hurts, but you know what, you said it, I got to look up and I was there celebrating with the world's center of racing above me.

And I have to imagine, yeah, that's the same old feeling to winning, you know, winning there.

Like I like to say winning a foot race at Indianapolis would mean the world to me.

Um, you know, it's like those two places to me just are so damn cool.

They mean so much to our sport and to achieve anything in either of them is amazing.

Uh, completely agree.

Um, I did have one last thing I wanted to touch on.

So we, we talked off the top about stepping back from full-time racing and, and whether it was motivated by it or whatever, the part of the result was, you know, this, this further delve into the media side and you know, it's, it's a part of the sport you've been involved in for a long time.

Um, but now you've got a different role.

So you, you, you talked about there were some opportunities that you wanted and you got them.

That's up in the booth with the CW for the Xfinity series, big transition.

You know, you've been in pit lane now for, I mean was it seven years you've been working at NBC? Yep. Something like that.

Yep. Um, and,

and have had for ass in the booth or whatever.

But now to be a booth guy for an entire season on a network, that's a huge deal.

Um, just, I mean, you got to go to Daytona, you've done Atlanta now.

I mean, just talk us through what it's been like in this kind of new role on the TV side.

God, it's fun. You know, you and you

and I did the, but we did, is It actually, Dude, you gotta Try it. I don't know that

I've actually asked James this, um, .

No I haven't. No I

Haven't.

Is it, is it fun? Like you Yes, it's actually cool. Yeah.

I, I mean here's my thing. I'm gonna watch the races

still, but Well I think you'd be good.

I think you'd be great at it. You got a great voice, my man.

Especially like, you know, the voiceovers Ross, you doing the voiceovers would just be like, that's kind.

Whoa. Yeah, that would be cool. Um, but I'll say that.

So I'm gonna be watching the races anyway, so I was like, I might as well get paid to do that.

That's the be this is the next, the first part.

I'm like, well that's badass. The second part is I was like,

man, if if when it's, when it's right.

Like when James, when you and I were up in the booth in the, the morning of the Rolex Sunday morning, it's like, what?

When you have great, what's so fun up there is it's like you're sitting with your buddies just watching a race.

What would you be talking about?

Well you'd be commenting like, oh, I wouldn't do that move.

Oh that was stupid. Wait, that was amazing.

How did they do that? Like that sort of thing.

And that's how I feel it is when I'm up there with Jay McMurray and Adam Alexander who are covering the cw the Xfinity series with me on the cw.

Like we're just three guys who would one already be watching the race.

Two are very excited to be watching the race and three are just like ha hanging out and there happens to be microphones in the background as we watch this race.

That's what I find fun.

You know, obviously there's, there's more, um, seriousness to like making sure you're covering all the right stories and, and giving everyone their due and their credit and you know, finding the correct stories to be talking about.

And as things unfold, making sure you're, you're paying attention.

But I just had a, you know, the couple times I've done it now I've had a blast because it's just, it's a, it's an intense thing, but it's so fun just watching what we love, which is race cars going fast and drivers trying to make crazy moves and teams trying to outsmart each other and it's all happening in front of you and you get to be like the first person to react to everything that happens.

Um, which I just, I've, I have so much fun with. Have

You, have you noticed a big difference in like the amount of or type of prep that you need to do?

'cause I mean, you are always a very, you know, you would show up prepared to broadcast, right?

No matter what your role was.

Um, but now that the role's changed, has the preparation changed at all?

You know, it has a little bit.

I would say it's like I have the, I probably have more, more stuff I would say just because you have to be prepared for every single car as opposed to pit reporting.

You know, there's times where you can definitely be focused on 10 cars or something like that.

Right. But the, the other side that I, I'm gonna say this,

but I don't want you to tell anyone. I think it's

Easier.

I promise it'll stay between us four. It

Easier than peer reporting. Um,

Way easier.

No, I, dude, I've, I've done both.

I could not agree more. Could not agree

More.

Why? It's easier because so peer reporting, you just, 'cause

You can see everything like on screen. Yes.

And you, but you can, you can have a thought.

You have time to finish it.

You have time to add your, your your own, you know, opinions on things and to craft stories you can fit And tell immediately.

Exactly. You don't have, Whereas like what,

when you're in the pits, you're like, oh my gosh, on the phone to the pit producer trying to sell a story like, oh I just got this bit of information.

Like, oh yeah, we'll get that to you and by the time the guy's in the booth shut up and get it down to you, the story's passed.

Like it, the moment's gone.

Like the number of things that you come up with and want to get on that just never make it is very frustrating.

Like, it, it's, it's one of the skills of a peer reporter is being able to just let all that stuff go.

Right. It's just not care about what you get on or not.

I would say of all the prep I do for pit reporting and all the teams I talk to, 99.9% of it doesn't get on air.

It's Right. You know, literally 0.1% makes it odd.

Whereas this, it's like I get done, I'm like, I hit everything I had everything I was gonna say, it's 90% of your stuff gets at everything got Hit.

To your point, like you also, when you had that story in pit reporting, they're like condense it, you know, take a massive amazing thing you're about to say and condense it into 10 to 20 seconds.

Yeah. Right now in the booth, they don't want you

to be talking and waxing poetic forever.

That will get annoying and to be droning on.

But you do have a little bit more room to be like, Hey, I'm gonna tell why this is happening and, and explain and finish my thought And you could come back to something later if it doesn't get in the first time.

And look, let's also just address the other thing.

You're in an air conditioned room , so like you're, you're already, you're better off .

It's way better. And we,

I know well Rossi's not gonna make it to the TV side, uh, because during our conversation here, he was about to fall asleep during this portion of the conversation.

Well here's, well then we're not as exciting as a race.

Here's the thing, uh, I know that I think for we should get him up in the booth for like an indie light session at some point Yes.

This year for Fox and just see what he thinks of it. Dude, you

Should do it.

I've, I've, I've commentated for uh, F1 for fp one sessions when I was that there You reserve when you reserve guy.

Yeah. wear wearing the sweater and the headset, right.

Pretending to be important.

Um, I would commentate on fp one sessions 'cause no one watched them so they were like, screw it and listen, put the American up there.

I don't think I did great but I didn't do bad 'cause I, they ended up having me do like five or six of 'em. So

There you go. Wow. Alright,

We're good.

That's a throw you on a lights broadcast and uh, let's do it.

How fit? Okay, you've got it here.

Pam Miller, if you're listening, I'm, I'm available.

I can also do one. Ross. Is

Tim's Not available? Yeah,

Tim's.

Oh he's not? Okay, nevermind. No,

He's not available.

Elephant is, but Tim isn't. I just said, said

That was like, I was just, it was available.

Parker, Tim. Nobody cares. Parker.

Uh, thanks for the time man.

And uh, congrats on uh, getting into sports, car racing.

Congrats on winning the truck race in Daytona.

Congrats on the CW deal and the awesome work you guys are doing there.

Just real quick. Congrats. Congrat on not retiring.

Yeah, not actually. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. Stop it.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, any other races on the cards

that people can keep an eye out for?

Are we doing Sebring? Is that

Doing Sebring?

We are doing Sebring, yes. Get that one.

Uh, Bristol Rocking Ham, the trucks, and then I can't really think further than that.

Everything's fluid. That's fair. I appreciate Sebring

That's really cared about.

It's pretty, it's pretty funny that Parker gets the test at Sea Ring James . I know. It must be nice.

Yeah. You weren't what? What? Ha I heard the car didn't

Car was not fixed.

Yeah. Not ready, damaged from Daytona.

Like it, it's, we actually had permission and budget to go and the car was not Prepared in time.

No . So that's a kick in the face. No joke. No joke dude.

I'm leaning on you guys and the work that Forte did on the Lambo side, hopefully you guys dialed in that old integral real nice and uh, you Just hope for some BOP changes from what I saw right now.

Good. I'm just gonna let you know the Lexus is really fast

and the Oh good.

Uh, the Porsche. Yeah.

I can't wait to hear Townsend brag about how quick the Lexus is. .

Uh, buddy, thanks so much.

Best of luck with everything going forward and we will chat to you soon.

Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Great chat with you.

This has been awesome. And uh, I am just once, I'm,

I cannot believe, wait, I was on track with you guys.

You are off track. . Oh, it,

We were on track earlier this year together.

Now we're all on off track.

It's confusing, but you do have your own show of Land and Castle.

Tell everybody where they can find the money lap. That's

Right.

We're doing that right after this money lap.

I'm terrible at promoting our own podcast.

Money Lap podcast. Same with Land and Castle.

We uh, it's pretty much like this.

It's two buddies who drive race cars and did drive race cars.

Um, yeah, talking about racing. So that's a hell of a sell.

Come check us out. We're like the worst show in

the world. I don't even know if you should.

If you like this, you'll love that. It's the same show. Yeah,

Exactly.

Exactly. . Alright buddy. Appreciate it.

See you guys. Thank you. This has been off

track with Hinch and Rossi.

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