The last time the winning car used two different drivers in NASCAR

Relief drivers are not a new concept in the world of NASCAR, and the rule around it hasn’t changed in a long time. Whoever starts the race gets credited with the finishing position and points, no matter how many laps they run.

However, it is very  rare that one of these cars with a mid-race driver swap goes on to actually win. And yet, that’s exactly what Parker Kligerman did while filling in for Connor Zilisch at Daytona on Friday night.

Zilisch, who was recovering from a broken collarbone, started the race and rode in the back of the pack. After completing 13 of 100 laps, he pulled down pit road during the first caution period. Kligerman was waiting and in something only sports car racing fans are accustomed to seeing, the team quickly orchestrated a driver swap.

Zilisch climbed up onto the pit box with crew chief Mardy Lindley and team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. while Kligerman ran the rest of the race. Well, as fate would have it, Kligerman (who has never actually won an Xfinity race), went on to capture the checkered flag in a 1-2-3 finish for JRM.

The infamous Milwaukee driver swap

So while Kligerman got to celebrate, it’s actually Zilisch who gets credit for the race win. This hasn’t happened in any national-level NASCAR race since the 2007 season, and that was a very different situation.

Denny Hamlin was scheduled to perform double duty between the Cup and Xfinity races on the weekend of of June 22-24 in 2007. But it wasn’t going to be as simple as walking over to the other side of the garage, as the Cup Series was racing in Sonoma, California, while the Xfinity Series was competing at The Milwaukee Mile in Wisconsin.

Because of that, Aric Almirola drove the car through practice and qualifying, even earning pole position. Hamlin was running late as the race start approached, so Almirola actually piloted the car for the first 59 laps of the race. He was running third when Hamlin arrived, and due to sponsor commitments, Hamlin reluctantly took over the car. It was a very unpopular move, and Almirola was visibly despondent about it.

Former Cup Series champion Rusty Wallace, who was in the broadcast booth for ESPN, was among those who were openly critical of the decision. 

Hamlin actually fell a lap down due to the time it took to perform the driver swap. Despite this, he fought back onto the lead lap, and Hamlin drove the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet to a very controversial win – a win that Almirola got credit for in the end.

A ‘bittersweet’ victory

Denny Hamlin wins the race, but Aric Almirola is credited with the victory

Photo by: Jonathan Daniel via Getty Images

“It was a group decision,” said crew chief Dave Rogers at the time. “It’s tough. Denny really didn’t want to get in it, and we didn’t really want to take Aric out. But this is Rockwell’s global headquarters (#20 sponsor), and we got a lot of Rockwell employees out in those stands. They made it clear that they wanted to see Denny Hamlin win and they came to see Denny race … it’s a bittersweet victory.”

In Victory Lane, Hamlin said of the swap: “I knew he’d be really upset with how well he was running at the time. But we gotta do what we gotta do, and definitely it wasn’t my choice.” 

Almirola declined interviews and left the track before its conclusion, so he did not participate in the winning celebrations. It’s highly unlikely that he would have wanted to anyway. The good news for Almirola is that he went on to win several more races in both the Cup and Xfinity Series, including a reunion with JGR.