By: Zach Arnold

Early before the season, it was announced Klingerman would run his first full-time NASCAR season with Big Machine Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity series. BMR is a solo car team and has yet to qualify for the playoffs throughout their tenure in the sport.

Through 24 races in the season, the No. 48 is currently sitting in the 12th and final playoff spot, 20 points above the cutoff line with two races remaining. There is only one other driver in a position to snag the final playoff spot off points, Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Ford Mustang. The 24-year-old is on the outside looking in, hoping his team can overcome recent struggles and lock in during these final two races.

Every other Xfinity driver outside of the cutline who is not currently locked into the playoffs will need to win either at Darlington Raceway or Kansas Speedway to put themselves in the show. Luckily for Klingerman and Herbst, there was no new winner at Daytona, arguably the biggest wildcard on the schedule.

Essentially, there is a lot at stake for Parker Klingerman over the next two weeks. 

“We got a nice point buffer going into Darlington and Kansas, two places I feel very confident about being able to replicate the speed we have had for the last 11 weeks, so if we keep this up going into the playoffs, I’ll feel really confident,” Klingerman told the media after Daytona. 

Darlington and Kansas fill up the final two weeks of the regular season schedule. Klingerman finished 13th earlier this year at Darlington, while Herbst did not finish the race due to an accident. The Xfinity series has not made a trip to Kansas this year, so they will be turning their first laps at Kansas next weekend.

Don’t miss the next NASCAR Xfinity Series race this Saturday, September 2nd at 3 p.m. on NBC Sports.