Parker Kligerman embarrassed after explaining NASCAR horsepower compared to Tesla to a friend

A conversation between NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Parker Kligerman and a buddy of his didn't go how the former would've hoped. After explaining to the friend how much horsepower is in a NASCAR stock car, Kligerman felt defeated by the response.

On a recent episode of Kligerman's podcast, The Money Lap, the three-time CRAFTSMAN Truck Series recalled a conversation that took place while catching up with one of his buddies and shared the incident. The 34-year-first shared the question that was asked,

"He goes, 'Well, the NASCAR race cars you drive, what are they like 2,000 horsepower, 1,500 horsepower, 1,000 horsepower?'" Kligerman said.

Contrary to Kligerman's friend's belief, the general Xfinity Series car carries anywhere between 650-700 horsepower. When he explained how much horsepower was in a standard NASCAR stock car, Kligerman was crushed by his friend's response.

"When I had to explain to him that they were actually around 650 [horsepower], the look on his face was unbelievable," Kligerman said. "This is his response: 'Why does your race car have less horsepower than my Tesla?' I crumbled. I died."

Kligerman finished 10th in the points standings this past season in what was his final season of full-time Xfinity Series racing. The 34-year-old racked up 15 top 10s and five top fives behind the wheel of the #48 Big Machine Racing car. Kligerman had a shot at winning at the Charlotte Roval in October but was overtaken by Sam Mayer on a late restart and settled for sixth place.

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Parker Kligerman said it wasn't a "small" decision to step away from full-time NASCAR competition

Parker Kligerman revealed he was hanging up the helmet in NASCAR racing on a full-time basis last September. However, in an episode of The Money Lap podcast, the now-former driver of the #48 car revealed it wasn't an easy process.

“It’s not a small decision and definitely didn’t happen overnight,” Kligerman said. “It was a lot of months of deliberating and thinking about it and going down one path and then another and going back and forth."

Kligerman recalled being out on a run in Sonoma when he realized that he wanted to step away from racing. When he reached the top of a mountain overlooking the water in San Francisco, Kligerman realized he was content with his racing career.

"I just had this moment where I was like, 'I think I'm good,'" Kligerman said. "I think I want to finish this year out and then I want to see what's next. So, I ended up calling my girlfriend and telling her that and she was like, 'Wow, that's pretty powerful, did you feel that?' I was like, 'No, I really think I did.'"

Kligerman began working for NBC Sports as a pit reporter in 2015, a position he still holds today.