Full Throttle

Eighteen-year-old Parker Kligerman earned his fourth consecutive ARCA RE/MAX Series victory by upstaging Grant Enfinger during a classic side-by-side last-lap battle in the “Click It or Ticket. Buckle-Up! Kentucky 150″ at Kentucky Speedway.

Parker Kligerman claimed the sixth-closest series victory in track history by 0.599 of a second after guiding his No. 77 Cunningham Motorsports Dodge past Enfinger’s No. 83 BeasleyAllen.com Ford on the inside line in Turn 4 as both cars barreled toward the checkered flag.

Kligerman drove underneath Grant Enfinger off turn four coming to the checkered flag to win the Click It or Ticket Buckle-Up Kentucky 150 Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway. The victory marked Kligerman’s fifth win on tour in the last six races, and fourth consecutive for the Westport, Connecticut driver.

“I knew he was going to go high. I had to go low, but I kept getting loose at the bottom and I didn’t want a repeat of last time here (when I spun out and finished 17th). We went back at it, I saw him go high and I thought he’d drive it in.

“So, the second I went in there I just wanted to force him out. I decided to get on the throttle regardless of where he’d be. I figured we’d either hit or look like heroes. We looked like heroes, so that’s good,” he said.

“This win means a lot to me and I think it means a lot to my team; especially after what happened to us here in May when we were running up front and ended up spinning,” said Kligerman.

The first-year series driver earned much sought after redemption following his May 9 showing here that marks his only finish outside a race top 10 this season. He maintains control of the series championship lead by taking his fifth win, seventh top-five and 10th top-10 finish. He earned those wins in the past six series events.

Enfinger, an accomplished Late Model racer competing in the ARCA RE/MAX Series with a limited budget, led all of but two of the closing 30 laps before being nipped at the finish line. He earned his season-best second-place finish in just his third start.

Enfinger and Kligerman traded the lead four times in the last 30 laps during which the two front-runners were either side-by-side or nose-to-tail.

“I drove it in there (Turn 4) a little bit too hard and heard him get back on the gas. I did everything I could, but ran out tires a little bit. He was unquestionably a lot faster and I think the best car won. It was kind of David and Goliath here, and I think we caught everyone by surprise by staying in front of him as long as we did,” Enfinger said.

Second-place championship contender Justin Lofton placed third in his No. 6 Lofton Cattle-CGS Imaging Toyota and has now earned two straight top-five series finishes at the track. Craig Goess earned a season-best fourth-place finish and Brian Ickler rounded out the top five after placing 21st in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series “Built Ford Tough 225 Presented by the Greater Cincinnati Ford Dealers” earlier.

Craig Goess, after changing engines right before the race, battled from the tail-end to finish a career-best fourth in the Greenville of North Carolina Toyota.

Brian Ickler also started in the back after changing transmissions following qualifying and raced through the pack to finish fifth. Ickler also earned his career-first Menards Pole presented by Ansell establishing a new one-lap track record with an average speed of 179.247 mph.

Steve Arpin, who led seven laps, finished sixth in the Pinewood Sports Toyota in front of Joey Coulter, Frank Kimmel, Patrick Sheltra and Tom Hessert to complete the top-10 finishers respectively.

Kligerman led 58 of 100 laps overall, including the first 26 circuits before first-round pit stops, which included Kligerman, reshuffled the running order. Enfinger, who elected to forego first round pit stops, took over the lead before Kligerman raced back through the pack to regain the top-spot. Kligerman led up through lap 62 before giving it up again while the eventual winner made his final pit stop that set up his run to the checkered flag.

The ARCA RE/MAX Series travels next to Berlin Raceway Saturday night, July 25 for the Wolverine Power Systems 200 presented by Generac.