“This sport isn’t fair and hard”: Jeb Burton reacts to Parker Kligerman’s Xfinity series announcement

Parker Kligerman took to his podcast 'The Money Lap' and announced his departure from Big Machine Racing ahead of the 2025 season. The 34-year-old further shared that he will be taking a break from full-time racing. After learning about the #48 driver's announcement, Jeb Burton encouraged Parker to keep racing.

Burton learned about Kligerman's decision when he met the #48 driver last week, as mentioned in his X post. The Virginia native highlighted how he tried to motivate Kligerman to keep on going till he achieved his goal. The #20 driver also made a statement on NASCAR and wrote:

"This sport isn’t fair and hard. It takes talent, money, and resources."

Burton also emphasized that the #48 driver is talented and experienced. Parker Kligerman is in ninth place in the standings with 674 points and only 192 points shy of the leader. The Big Machine Racing driver has achieved four top-5 and eleven top-10 finishes in the 2024 season.

Kligerman recently displayed his skills at the Atlanta Motor Speedway and clinched second place in the race. He started the race by qualifying in sixteenth place with a speed of 171.386 mph and a record time of 32.348 seconds. In Stage 1, the #48 driver finished seventeenth and improved 4 positions in Stage 2. As the race reached the final stage, he switched gears and ended up in second place.

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Parker Kligerman explained the reason behind his big decision

In his podcast, the #48 driver spoke about the gravity of the decision, and it was not made overnight. He had been planning this for months and putting a lot of thought into this decision. The decision to step away from full-time racing became clearer after the Portland race in June. After the race, he stayed in Sonoma and described his seminal moment as:

"I went for a run and ended up on top of the mountain overlooking the water in San Francisco, and I had this moment where I was like, ‘I think I’m good. I think I want to finish this year out and then see what’s next."

Parker Kligerman's career has been a rollercoaster ride. He was a full-time driver in the Cup racing, then went part-time in the Xfinity Series and Truck Series. In 2023, he returned as a full-time driver after more than a decade away. He ended his 2023 season in tenth position with his all-time high eight top-5 finishes.

The Big Machine driver believed that the opportunity to return as a full-time Cup driver wasn't going to 'present itself' and played a major role in his decision.

"It just started to become very apparent that, through many reasons, that wasn't an opportunity that was going to present itself," Parker Kligerman said. "I just find myself saying, 'I feel like I've done this,' and not been nearly as successful as I've wanted to be."

The #48 driver is focused on the nine races left in the 2024 season to stay in the game and fight for the championship this year.