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Young guns are always on the rise in NASCAR’s lower tier series, and Parker Retzlaff is one of those young guns. The 19 year old is already full time driving the 31 car for Jordan Anderson in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. But who is Parker Retzlaff, and what is his story?
Retzlaff comes the small, northern Wisconsin town of Rhinelander, population of just over 8,000 people. According to his website, Retzlaff was behind the wheel early at the age of 7 years old before moving to race alongside grown-ups at the age of 12.
While racing locally in Wisconsin, Retzlaff’s website notes that he won the 2012 Midseason Points Championship in Junior Sprints, the 2014 Wisconsin Bandoleros State Championship, and won the 2017 E3 Spark Plug Triple Crown Series Rookie of the Year Award for Asphalt Midwest Truck.
At the age of 16, Retzlaff entered his first NASCAR Regional Touring race in June of 2019 at Memphis. In a race that featured names such as Ty Gibbs, Todd Gilliland, and Sam Mayer, Retzlaff would finish 10th. A few weeks later, Retzlaff would finish an impressive fifth in a K&N East and West Series Combination race at Gateway, and his career was off and running.
After spending 2020 and 2021 in the Arca Menards Series East, Ratzlaff scored his first Xfinity Series top 10 at Richmond in the spring of 2022. His performance on a part-time basis caught the eye of Jordan Anderson, pushing Retzlaff into a full-time ride heading into 2023. His season started off with his best career Xfinity Series finish of fourth at Daytona.
Jordan Anderson has built his own team from the ground up. A former owner-driver in the Truck Series starting in 2018, Anderson has slowly built a competitive Xfinity Series operation featuring two full-time entries in 2023. An impressive 2022 for Retzlaff caught the eye of Anderson, and now Retzlaff is driving for Anderson in the Xfinity Series.
Speaking to Dustin Albino of Jayski, Anderson said:
“To have someone like him, 19 years old, he’s a great talent…And if you look at his results from last season, every one of his races, he was running at the end. For a team like ours, it’s all about being able to bring a car back to the shop, make it better and bring it back to the racetrack the following week. That’s how you get better.”
Retzlaff’s performance has not only caught the eye of Anderson. It has also impressed his teammate, veteran Jeb Burton as Burton told Jayski.
“Parker is a good little wheelman,” Burton said. “He’s got a lot to learn, but he has speed. I think it will be good to have him as a teammate.”
Like most modern young guns in the sport, Retzlaff says on his website that he likes to do iRacing in his free time alongside activities like playing basketball, hanging out with friends, and working on race cars. He also lists his favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver as Kyle Larson.
Could a future at Hendrick Motorsports as Larson’s teammate be in the future for Retzlaff, who knows. However, a driver at his age racing full-time in the Xfinity Series is an impressive feat. The sky is the limit for this young man.
