Parker Retzlaff
Parker Retzlaff (Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)

ARCA Graduate of the Week: Parker Retzlaff earns top-10 finish in NASCAR Xfinity Series at Richmond

www.arcaracing.com April 5, 2022

Parker Retzlaff earned the first top-10 finish of his NASCAR Xfinity Series career with a 10-place run in Saturday’s Toyota Care 250 at Richmond Raceway.

The 18-year-old Rhinelander, Wisconsin, native started seventh, and despite issues on pit road costing him track position, he was consistently able to race his way back through the field. Retzlaff’s finish gave his team, RSS Racing, two finishers in the top 10, as Ryan Sieg finished directly in front of him in ninth.

Ty Gibbs, the 2021 ARCA Menards Series champion, scored his third win of the 2022 Xfinity Series season with a last-lap pass of teammate John Hunter Nemechek. It marked Gibbs’ seventh Xfinity Series win in just his 25th series start.

Retzlaff jumped into the Xfinity Series after making 13 starts in the ARCA Menards Series platform dating back to 2019. Retzlaff’s debut came at WWT Raceway in 2019, when he qualified 11th and finished an impressive fifth driving for team owners John and Marie Visconti. He ran a full season in the ARCA Menards Series East in 2020. Driving for long-time team owner Bruce Cook, Retzlaff notched five top-10 finishes in six starts and ended the season fourth in the standings.

Retzlaff followed with six more starts in 2021, and he picked up a career-best fourth at Southern National Motorsports Park in Lucama, North Carolina. His only finishes outside the top 10 were a 12th at Dover Motor Speedway and an 11th in the combined ARCA Menards Series/East Series race at the Milwaukee Mile. Despite missing two of the eight events, Retzlaff still ended the season seventh in the standings.

Retzlaff’s performance Saturday was an eye-opener, giving the RSS Racing team its 50th top-10 finish and marking just the third time in the team’s history it had two cars in the top 10 at the finish of a race.

Drivers with experience on the ARCA Menards Series platform have accounted for all 35 possible top-five finishes in the NASCAR Cup Series so far in 2022. They also have 31 of 35 possible top-five finishes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and 19 of the possible 20 top-five finishes in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.