In 2017, Parker Kligerman gave Henderson Motorsports their first win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Talladega and on Friday night it looked like he would give them their third.

After qualifying 23rd, the part-time veteran Kligerman would need to survive a pack that set the record for cautions at Daytona last season. Enter step one of NASCAR’s guide to breaking a heart.

Give ‘em hope

Despite the lack of qualifying speed, any race fan knows that at Daytona, anything is possible and Kligerman got the help he needed. The field that typically operates like an uncharitable hornets’ nest was calm.

Aside from some single-car incidents from Kaden Honeycutt and Toni Breidinger, the field raced caution free for the first two stages. Kligerman bided his time through this period, not getting aggressive, just surviving.

As the laps wound down the pack that contained themselves for the first two stages exploded with every driver taking any run they could get. Showing off his superspeedway expertise, Kligerman found his way to the front and made a move to take the lead.

The big one struck down the backstretch with one lap to go and as cars found themselves buried into the SAFER barriers, Kligerman found himself out front crossing the start finish line with nobody in front of him.

Euphoria

As Kligerman exited the car, he stood on the edge of the driver’s side window, pumping his fists in the air and hugging anyone who came near him.

“That’s the biggest win of my career,” Kligerman said in his front stretch interview with FOX Sports’ Reagan Smith. “Been so close the last couple of years, means so much to win at the biggest place.”

Kligerman celebrated, running around and finally planting his checkered flag into the infield grass at The World Center of racing. As his NASCAR career comes to a close, Kligerman would walk out of Daytona, a winner.

For an hour.

Break it

In the middle of the celebration, NASCAR announced that Kligerman’s #75 truck had failed post race inspection and would be disqualified. NASCAR said that the truck’s ride height was too low.

The winner would officially be Corey Heim, his first win at Daytona and 12th of his young career.

Kligerman and the team did announce in a statement later Friday night that they will appeal the decision and work to get the win back. Kligerman said on the CW’s Xfinity Series pre-race show that he feels like “they have a good case” and the appeal will take place on Tuesday.

Regardless of the decision it’s NASCAR’s second officiating controversy in just its third day of the 2025 season. The overwhelming argument from fans and drivers was that if the car passed pre-race inspection and it received no damage, Kligerman shouldn’t have been punished for that.

This controversy kicks off what is set to be an intriguing Truck series season, but I’m not ready to make any strong season focused takeaways from this one. Superspeedways are notably different from most of the tracks on the Truck schedule, but for next week at Atlanta I expect Thorsport to dominate yet again.

Make sure to keep an eye out for Tricon’s rookie Gio Ruggiero as well, who lead multiple laps late in this race and finished second officially.

The Craftsman Truck Series returns to action next weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Fr8 208 on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 11:00 a.m. PST.