Youth served (Watch out for these guys)

If you missed Friday's ARCA race at Michigan, you missed the future of NASCAR.

Parker Kligerman, a development driver for Penske Racing, won. Kligerman is an 18-year-old, who will graduate upon taking his finals next week at a public high school in Connecticut. Then, he'll move to the Charlotte area to attend UNC-Charlotte. He finished ahead of 18-year-old Austin Dillon, who just graduated from a private school in North Carolina this week. Dillon is headed to High Point University. Dillon also is the grandson of car owner Richard Childress. Childress didn't get to see this race because of a sponsor appearance. Dillon knows that it had to be eating his grandfather up. Dillon is scheduled to compete in a few Nationwide races along with Truck, ARCA and some other events as he gains experience.

Kligerman is an interesting story. He was signed to run the first eight ARCA races this year. He won two. Friday's race was the 8th. He said he'll do the next but doesn't know beyond that as the team continues to look for sponsors.

So, what's Kligerman's secret (other than Penske support)? Let him explain.

"I actually did a speech on this in speech class just a week ago,'' he said, a comment you dont' hear in NASCAR. "It's about expectations. when I go to a race track, like a brand new race track, I have no expectations, what the car will do, what the track will be like how fast it will be. That's how we've approached every single race this year because it's all so new. You can't have exepctations because if you don't live up to that expectation right away, then you feel down and you don't feel like you're doing well. And if you do have too low an expectation then you're thinking you're doing too well too quick. So, if you just go into everything with a perfect open mind, no idea what you're going to come up on, then you can just kind of build upon that success as you go along.''

What grade did he get on that speech? He doesn't know. He'll find out when he returns to school this week.

Another interesting story about Kligerman is how as a race car driver he recently felt ill after riding roller coasters. The school had a senior day at a Six Flags park ...

"I'm not a big fan of roller coasters. I decided that (since) all my friends were big on that stuff I was like I'm going to do everyone they do,'' he says. "So, we start off the day with the biggest, highest drop, which is Superman. Then we go from that one to the one that is supposed to be the most twisted and upside down one in the place. We went to one after another and before I knew it, I wasn't able to even walk around the place. So, we went and did bumper cars. That helped. It's kind of a like a car and racing. We did water rides to ease the sickness away. The thing that gets me about this. In racing, I'm always in control. I dictate what the car is doing and all that stuff. (Roller coasters) you're just along for the ride and it's terrifying. If we were driving, it would probably be less terrifying.''

If nothing else, keep an eye on these two drivers as they look to climb the NASCAR ranks to Sprint Cup. It could be quite a ride.

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