Parker Kligerman, who won one truck race while splitting the season among two teams on his way to a fifth in the series standings, will drive in the Nationwide Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2013.
The 22-year-old driver was released by Brad Keselowski Racing during the 2012 season and finished up the year with Red Horse Racing, where he won the October truck race at Talladega. Now he’ll drive for one of Keselowski’s biggest Sprint Cup rivals in Busch.
KBM, which made its debut in the Nationwide Series in 2012 with brothers Kyle and Kurt Busch driving the No. 54 car with sponsorship from Monster Energy, will field the No. 77 car Kligerman. Kyle Busch is expected to drive a part-time Nationwide schedule for Joe Gibbs Racing, team president J.D. Gibbs said last month.
Sponsorship for Kligerman wasn’t announced although KBM general manager Rick Ren said “Everyone at Toyota … speaks very highly of Parker and they were a big part of why were able to bring him onboard here at KBM.”
The addition of Kligerman gives KBM two full-time drivers competing for championships in 2013. Joey Coulter will drive for KBM in the trucks.
Kligerman moved from Keselowksi’s team to Red Horse Racing in August as Keselowski replaced him with Ryan Blaney, who had become the focus of Penske Racing’s driver development program.
Kligherman’s victory, five of his eight top-fives and both of his poles came while driving for the Toyota-backed Red Horse team.
“Once Parker got behind the wheel of a Toyota halfway through the season, he proved that he was capable of running up front week-in and week-out in the Truck Series and comes to us with a lot of confidence,” owner Kyle Busch said in a news release.
“Since I started my Truck Series team in 2010, I’ve wanted the focus of our efforts to be on developing young talent and being able to create an identity for KBM without having to be behind the wheel myself.”
KBM won the 2010 owners championship in the trucks, where it has 18 victories in three seasons. It had one victory (Kurt Busch at Richmond) last year in Nationwide.
“With the personnel that KBM has in place and what they were able to accomplish in their first year in the Nationwide Series combined with all the support they have from Toyota, … I see no reason why we can’t compete for wins on a weekly basis and be a top-five team in the final point standings,” Kligerman said. (Fox Sports)
