DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2014 Parker Kligerman drove the car across the finish line but Connor Zilisch will get credit for the victory in Friday\u2019s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still going to count this as a win, I\u2019m going to take the checkered flag,\u201d Kligerman told CW Network in victory lane.<\/p>\n
Said Zilisch: \u201cI think everybody knows Parker won the race today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zilisch suffered a broken collarbone two weeks ago in a fall in victory lane at Watkins Glen and had surgery to insert screws and a plate. He started Friday\u2019s race and remained in the car until a caution at Lap 13. Kligerman took over as planned and went on to score the overtime victory. The race ended under caution for a 14-car crash on the last lap.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t expect to get a call from Dale Jr. on the day I was leaving to go on vacation and (he) said \u2018Hey man, would you come drive this thing?\u2019\u201d Kligerman told the CW Network. \u201cObviously, hate the circumstances for Connor. He\u2019s an amazing generational talent. I feel honored to have gotten the call.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASCAR credits the starting driver with the car\u2019s results even if they aren\u2019t in the vehicle at the finish. <\/p>\n
Section 12.4.1.H of the Xfinity Series Rule Book states: \u201cIf a driver change occurs after taking the green flag, only the driver of record will receive Stage Points provided the driver of record is eligible for Points in the Series. A win by the replacement driver will not count towards eligibility for the driver Playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last time a substitute driver crossed the finish line first in the Xfinity Series was 2007 at Milwaukee. Denny Hamlin arrived from Sonoma after Cup practice and qualifying. His helicopter couldn\u2019t land at the track because the landing pad was blocked by parked cars. That forced Hamlin\u2019s helicopter to land at an airport and before riding to the track. Aric Almirola started at Milwaukee, led the first 43 laps and was running third. Once Hamlin arrived, he was put in the car and went on to win.<\/p>\n
Saturday night, Sammy Smith placed second and Justin Allgaier was third to give JR Motorsports a 1-2-3 finish. Allgaier took the points lead. He leads Zilisch by three points with two races left in the regular season.<\/p>\n
Sam Mayer placed fourth. Jesse Love finished fifth in the 104-lap race, which was extended by four laps of overtime.<\/p>\n
The race went to overtime after a multi-car crash when Ryan Sieg, running in the top five got turned. Eleven cars were damaged.<\/p>\n
Stage 1 winner: Sammy Smith<\/p>\n
Stage 2 winner: Justin Allgaier<\/p>\n
Next: The series races at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, Aug. 30 at Portland International Raceway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2014 Parker Kligerman drove the car across the finish line but Connor Zilisch will get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-90363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}