Parker Retzlaff busted onto the racing scene through iRacing. It was up to him on whether that experience could translate to the real world.
While many people in numerous professions had to adjust to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Retzlaff hopped on iRacing every day. His win percentage was nearly 65% with 1,150 wins.
“He was doing a league race every single night,” Ariana Jencik, Retzlaff‘s girlfriend, said. “It was seven days per week. It‘s honestly what has made his career what it is today, so I can‘t complain. It always keeps him on his toes. He enjoys it and it‘s a lot less stressful.”
Retzlaff competed on the track competitively before he became among the best iRacers in the world. He began racing on local dirt tracks in Wisconsin at age 7. He then raced bandoleros the following year.
It wasn‘t until Retzlaff flew to North Carolina, where he started to earn bigger opportunities. He ran partial ARCA Menards Series schedules in 2019 and 2020, while also running the full ARCA East schedule, finishing fourth in the championship standings. He ran more partial schedules in 2021 before taking a leap of faith to the Xfinity Series in 2022.
Out of the gate, Retzlaff was impressive. He qualified sixth in his series debut at Phoenix Raceway for RSS Racing and tallied a 10th-place finish in his second start. The early results set up a move to Jordan Anderson Racing full time in 2023.
As Retzlaff familiarized himself with the series, he became more comfortable. His seven top-10 finishes as a rookie were more than JAR teammate Jeb Burton, who made the playoffs virtue of winning at Talladega.
Retzlaff started the 2024 season with consecutive top-five finishes at Daytona and Atlanta. All three of his career top fives have come on superspeedways, scoring two additional top 10s.
“It gets very aggressive at the end of those races, so being smart and not putting yourself in a bad spot is the best way to go about those races,” Retzlaff said.
Team owner Jordan Anderson has put himself in a similar position on superspeedways, particularly in the Craftsman Truck Series, earning consecutive runner-up finishes at Daytona in 2020 and 2021. He makes sure his teams are prepared to be competitive at drafting tracks, knowing the playing field is even.
“I‘ve always felt like those are opportunity races for us,” Anderson said. “We put a lot of effort into, not just the cars, but our strategies and plans. When you have an opportunity for all of that to come together in those races, it leads to those results.
“People can talk about plate racing being about luck and being in the right place at the right time, but a lot of the drivers at the Cup and Xfinity level that are good in those races somehow are always there at the end of them. That‘s not by accident.”
Aside from the top fives to start the 2024 season, issues have plagued the No. 31 team in 2024. Similarly to Burton, Retzlaff has shown more speed compared to his rookie season, scoring his first pole award at Richmond in March.
However, Retzlaff leads the series with seven DNFs. Three of those have come from mechanical failures, derailing any shot at success.
“The two top fives to start the year and everything was looking good,” Retzlaff said. “It‘s been up and down. I don‘t really think there‘s anything missing, it‘s just no luck at all.”
Retzlaff had to adjust to working with a new group of people. Late in the offseason, JAR announced Chad Kendrick would replace Joshua Graham as crew chief of the No. 31 car. Getting acclimated to new people has allowed Retzlaff to become more of a leader internally.
“His confidence is a lot higher and I think he‘s found his groove as a competitor to where he‘s not letting himself get pushed around,” Anderson said of Retzlaff. “He is finding his voice in what he wants in a racecar. He‘s finding his footing on the racetrack to race against these guys. He‘s been very smart and intelligent in how he‘s made those decisions.”
NASCAR returns to Daytona this weekend, where Retzlaff will be pulling double duty for the first time. Originally, his Cup Series debut was slated for Daytona with Beard Motorsports, but he needed to compete on a shorter track to get licensed for Daytona. He finishes 35th at Richmond two weeks ago for MBM Motorsports.
With many desperate drivers who need to win at Daytona to lock themselves into the Cup playoffs, Retzlaff knows an opportunity could arise late in the event to be in the middle of the action. Staying clean for the beginning portion of the race and minimizing mistakes will be a key for the No. 62 Beard Motorsports team.
“My goal will be to not do anything stupid and learn everything I can throughout the race, make it to the end of the race and learn everything I can,” Retzlaff said. “I‘m going to try to talk to as many people as I can before the race. I‘m not going to try to be in the middle of the pack. I‘m going to try to slowly learn throughout the whole race.”
Anderson knows that Retzlaff will learn on the fly. It‘s also the first time one of his full time drivers has had an opportunity at the Cup level.
“At Daytona and Talladega, anything can happen,” Anderson said. “The speedway races that we‘ve run, he‘s done a great job with top fives and top 10s, and always manages to be there at the end. For us, as a team, to catapult someone like him in his position, who was a green rookie when he came to us last year to now moving up to that opportunity, is hopefully a sign of things to come for our team.”
Don‘t count on Retzlaff, who is still inexperienced compared to much of the Xfinity Series competition, to jump up to the Cup Series on a more regular basis in the near future.
“I don‘t think that I want to be there now full time, but I would love to do some races throughout the year,” he added. “I think at this point, I‘m still focused on running Xfinity and trying to win an Xfinity race before I go there.”
Retzlaff sits 17th in the Xfinity Series championship standings, but will need to win one of the final five races of the regular season to qualify for the postseason.
