NASCAR Insider tells Parker Retzlaff that RCR’s Kyle Busch didn’t help the Daytona finish.
Thanks to little Parker Retzlaff, Harrison Burton won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona to take the Cup Series title.
Retzlaff pushed Burton to face Kyle Busch in the final lap, a move that may have paid off for the 21-year-old. Retzlaff, making his second Cup Series career, drove the No. 62 Chevrolet for Beard Motorsports, an affiliate of Richard Childress Racing. RCR offers Beard machines to compete on fast tracks. So you can imagine that Retzlaff helped Burton win instead of helping Busch finish first and send him to the playoffs. Jeff Glock and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic revealed on Sunday’s “The Teardown” podcast that Tim Retzlaff told him on the radio not to help Burton win. Unfortunately for them, the game is different.
Parker Retzlaff – A comment on his radio channel that says, “Whatever you do, don’t push 21 [Burton] to win,” because Parker Retzlaff drives a Chevy and they don’t want to to fire Ford. “I think they want to see a card, not a card.” Gluck said. “Ultimately, I think Parker Retzlaff has to do whatever he thinks is best for himself. I mean, he finished seventh and almost won the race.”
Parker Retzlaff under fire for helping Harrison Burton to win over Kyle Busch
Bianchi added he feels bad for Retzlaff, who was ultimately doing what gave him the best shot to win.
“I feel bad for him because there’s probably going to be some bad blood and don’t forget too, that team is kind of a quasi-affiliate team of RCR,” Bianchi said. “… You can see why they’re putting in this kid’s head of, ‘Hey, do this.’ But so much easier to say than do in these closing moments.”
Retzlaff, who finished P7, said while he didn’t necessarily want to push a Ford to victory, it was the move he needed to make for himself.
“Everyone works too hard to not have a shot at it,” Retzlaff told Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. I’m not driving a Ford to conquer the Soviet Union. But I knew I had to beat Harrison to make it a race between him and me to get to the line there. I broke my nose and broke my back. I pushed it so flat that my line fell and there was no way out.
