Fastest NASCAR driver in 2019? A part-timer
By Asher Fair
The fastest driver in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season is none other than Gaunt Brothers Racing’s Parker Kligerman, who is not only a non-playoff driver but a part-timer.
Parker Kligerman’s average finish as a part-time driver so far in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season may be just 26.85, and his career average finish may be just 29.44. But that hasn’t stopped him from being the undisputed fastest driver in NASCAR this year.
The 29-year-old Stamford, Connecticut native, who serves as a NASCAR analyst and pit reporter for NBC Sports Network for select races, has competed in 13 of the 32 races that have been contested so far in the 36-race Cup Series season.
The 2019 season has been Kligerman’s busiest season in the Cup Series, as he entered it with just 14 career starts, with just four of those 14 starts coming since Swan Racing suspended operations in the 2014 season after he competed in the season’s first eight races for the team.
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Kligerman, whose 17 starts over the last two seasons have come with him driving for Gaunt Brothers Racing, most recently competed in this past Sunday’s round of 12 playoff race at Kansas Speedway.
But just six days before that, he competed in the round of 12 race at Talladega Superspeedway, and in doing so, the part-time driver became the 2019 season’s fastest driver.
Driving the #96 Toyota, Kligerman completed a lap around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Talladega Superspeedway oval in Lincoln, Alabama in just 46.530 seconds during this race. At that pace, he could circle the track 77.369 times in an hour, making his lap speed a season-high 205.803 miles per hour.
https://twitter.com/pkligerman/status/1185952098619404290
Given the four tracks (Martinsville Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, ISM Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway) that remain on this year’s schedule, that isn’t going to change.
Soak it in, Parker; you are the fastest driver in NASCAR.
The fastest driver and team in @NASCAR in 2019 is... @PKligerman and @GauntBrosRacing!
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 25, 2019
Let Parker explain in this week's #InTheWall, and join the conversation here: https://t.co/P6FI6KHDwC pic.twitter.com/8eoE1kKBqv
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Parker Kligerman tied his season-high finish and his career-high finish with a 15th place result in this 188-lap race, as he also finished in 15th in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway back in mid-February. He is set to make his next start in the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway next Sunday, November 3.