Retzlaff Scores Cup Top 10 After Pushing Burton to Victory at Daytona

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer

NASCAR Xfinity Series regular Parker Retzlaff may have scored his first career top-10 finish in NASCAR’s premier division, but it’s his road to a seventh-place result that folks will be looking back fondly for years to come.

During Saturday’s chaotic Coke Zero Sugar 400, the 21-year-old driver from Rhinelander, Wisconsin escaped all the big wrecks and blow overs to put himself in excellent position of bringing Beard Motorsports’ No. 62 team home with a strong result.

“It was just really aggressive. Everyone was pushing as hard as they can,” said Retzlaff. “It just very aggressive, but that’s how this racing gets and that’s why you see wrecks like you do. You have to be lucky and miss the wrecks, but also have a fast enough car to be there at the end.”

Retzlaff did that, but played a key role in Harrison Burton’s maiden NASCAR Cup Series win.

Race leader Kyle Busch had taken the white flag, ahead of Burton and Christopher Bell. Not far back was Retzlaff, who was sandwiched between Cody Ware and John Hunter Nemechek for the fourth spot. From there, Retzlaff began drafting with Burton to escape the three-wide battle and both chose the outside line.

As the field headed down the “Daytona Superstretch” for the final time, Retzlaff’s Chevrolet really pushed Burton’s No. 21 Ford aggressively to the top spot entering Turn 3. Much to the potential chagrin of team and OEM orders as Beard Motorsports has a technical partnership with Richard Childress Racing (Busch’s team).

Despite being told over the radio to not push the “Blue Oval” branded car of Burton, orders became irrelevant for the young Wisconsin racer as he moved his “Bowtie Brigade” powered machine up to second. Such revelation was short lived as he wasn’t able to keep the position and became a game of survival going forward.

It began when Retzlaff and Bell made contact, killing any momentum he had and fell back. Worsen once Ware, who was fighting for a career-best fourth, moved up the track which resulted him rubbing fenders with Ty Gibbs, sending the latter to door slam Retzlaff with the impact sending him into the wall.

As Burton went on to celebrate his maiden win and Wood Brothers Racing’s 100th Cup win, Retzlaff came home in seventh. Saturday night’s result marked the Beard organization’s seventh career top-10 finish and second of 2024 when Anthony Alfredo finished sixth at Talladega earlier this season.

During the post-race press conference, Burton had nothing but high praises for the Beard Motorsports driver. Without Retzlaff’s help, a playoff berth wouldn’t have been possible.

“(Parker) did one of the best jobs I’ve ever seen pushing. He had me crossed up a few times where I was sideways out of control,” said Burton. “I could tell even to the restart he gave me space enough to where I could gather the car and then push me again. You see a lot of guys just kind of run through you in that moment, especially at the end of these races.

“Huge hats off to him. I owe him, I don’t know how old he is, a beer if he’s old enough, or what. He did a great job, for sure.”

Despite coming close of being a party crasher in the “World Center of Racing,” Retzlaff had plenty to be proud of his second Cup start.

“It was definitely a good run for the No. 62 Funkaway Chevy team. I’m happy with a top-10 finish,” said Retzlaff. “I came in here today saying I wanted a top-15. Coming out of turn four there, knowing I was third or maybe fourth to the No. 20 (Bell), I knew I had a shot. I’m happy we gave this team a shot.

“We had an amazing car. Thank you to Darren (Shaw, crew chief) and everyone at Beard Motorsports; the Beard family for everything they’ve done and the support of Funkaway. I’m happy about it, but I still want more.”

Like any racer who were in the mix at the finish, Retzlaff felt a win might’ve slipped away from him and the emotions were imminent. More so for a driver who needed to run at Richmond Richmond two weeks ago just to have a chance of competing at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

“It’s just been my dream to be here in the Cup Series at Daytona. It was my first one and I feel like I gave myself a shot,” Retzlaff explaining the emotions of competing at Daytona. “Coming so close and not getting it just hurts a little bit.”

The Daytona madness has come to an end and while the Cup guys soldier onto the regular season finale at Darlington Raceway, Retzlaff will concentrate on making the Xfinity Series playoffs.

With four regular season races remaining, Retzlaff is in a must-win scenario as he’s currently 18th in points, a distant 239 points behind 12th place Ryan Sieg heading into Darlington for the running of the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 (Saturday, August 31 at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA).