Full Throttle

Parker Kligerman, 18, went to his high school prom after his previous ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Pocono, Pa., last weekend. Next week he’ll return to his high school to take final exams, but first he schooled the field in winning the ARCA Racing for Wildlife 200 at Michigan International Speedway on Friday.

It was the youngster’s second victory of the season, the first coming at Toledo Speedway last May. It also pushed him into the ARCA points lead when previous points leader Justin Lofton fell out of the race with mechanical problems after leading the first 39 laps. He was credited with a 30th-place finish to fall 50 points behind Kligerman.

Kligerman took advantage of a number of mishaps that eliminated a lot of the top contenders including Justin Marks, who was leading with 91 laps remaining in the 100-lap race when he hit the wall.

Kligerman also had to overcome being a lap down because of problems early in the race.

With nine caution periods for a total of 49 laps, the race ended with a one-lap sprint to the finish when the green flag and white flag came out together following the cleanup of Marks’ crash.

“We kept making adjustments but we couldn’t get past being tight the whole time and we knew we were faster, we just didn’t know how much faster and how much we could get up there with all those yellows,” Kligerman said. “We just kept trying and moving up and before we knew it we were sitting third. It was time to go and we just went after it.”

Another teenager, 19-year-old Austin Dillon, finished second almost one-half second behind Kligerman, with Chase Miller third.

“We had to start in the back (36th) because of the rained out qualifying (Thursday) but we were able to come back and overcome everything, including going through the grass and messing up my left front fender, but the guys were able to fix it,” Dillon said. “We had a rough test but we were able to come back and bring a great car. I learned a lot today and it was just a great day all in all.”

Dillon graduated from high school last Friday.

Chase Miller, in a Cunningham Motorsports team car to Kligerman, finished third after being involved in an accident during an early-race restart.

“It was not an easy day,” said Miller. “Those restarts were one giant accordion and I got caught up in it and tore the whole rear end of my car off. For a while it just felt like we were wrecking every lap there. We went to work on the car made some adjustments and it took off like a missile again. Just an unfortunate break but the Cunningham team is really good out there and took care of things to get the car running fast again.”

James Buescher finished fourth in the Wolfpack Rentals Toyota in front of 18-year-old rookie Joey Coulter, who finished fifth in the Darrell Gwynn Foundation-Tempest Cycles Chevrolet, his third consecutive top-10 finish.

Mikey Kile, Ryan Crane, Steve Arpin, Bryan Silas and Craig Goess completed the top-10 finishers respectively.

Alli Owens making a bid for a third straight top ten finish faded in the last laps after running in the top six as late as lap 85. Alli and the ElectrifyingCareers.com Toyota finished 16th the last car on the lead lap.

Charlie Turner, radio show host, blogger - and for this race rookie gas man for Brad Smith’s #26 ApplianceZone.com Ford - apparently made it through the race including several stops for fuel without creating a raging inferno along pit lane.

The Shelby Township, MI. native Smith finished 26th. Congrats are in order for both and fully expect to be regaled with Charlie’s exploits in coming days.

Although I suspect the real story would be told by his wife after having to wash Charlie’s boxers post event. Whether I need to hear that story in an entirely different matter.