Seven weeks into the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season, Parker Retzlaff has matched his best finish, completed every lap and planted himself in the company of some of the biggest teams in the sport.
This comes in the well-traveled, 22-year-old Rhinelander native’s first season with a second-year team.
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“I don’t think we’re overperforming at all,” said Retzlaff, who sits ninth in the standings.
“It’s definitely sustainable for the whole year, and I think that there’s just more little stuff we can work on as we get cars built. And as we get a little bit farther ahead of everything, we have got to work on the little stuff that all these really big teams do. That’s where these guys get you, with all the little details.”
This driven, matter-of-fact, won’t-back-down attitude is one of the characteristics Viking Motorsports general manager Jeremy Lange loves about the driver of the team’s No. 99 Chevrolet.
But, here’s where they differ.
Parker Retzlaff of Rhinelander is in his fourth full NASCAR season at age 22, racing a Chevrolet for Viking Motorsports in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
“If you were to tell me in December, that we would be 11th in owner points and he’d be ninth in driver points, I’d tell you you’re crazy,” Lange said.
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Oh, they both knew this sort of performance was within reach when Lange sat down with Retzlaff last October. That’s why they got together.
But Lange considered contending for a playoff spot by the end of this season “a strech goal.” It wasn’t in his wildest dreams that Retzlaff, crew chief Danny Efland and their crew could have reached this far, this nimbly, this quickly.
“As a competitor, I’d be shocked if he didn’t think he could do what he’s doing,” Lange said. “Parker and any driver that you have in your race cars, they think they’re the best driver on that track at any given day. And Parker thinks he can win every race, which is what we want.
“It’s hard. These are the best drivers. And we’re competing against some teams who’ve been doing this for a long time. I’m excited where we are, and I thought we were gonna be 15th to 20th right now, not 11th. But equally, if we were 25th or 30, I’d be disappointed.”
Parker Retzlaff joined Viking Motorsports for 2026 and by his second race had recorded the team’s best finish.
Parker Retzlaff arrived in NASCAR with a splash despite no fanfare
This is not the first time Retzlaff has turned heads in NASCAR.
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He arrived in 2022 with just three ARCA national starts and 13 regional races on his résumé, joining RSS Racing in what was known as the Xfinity Series for what would be the start of a nine-race run. Retzlaff qualified sixth for his debut and finished 12th or better three times in his first five races that abbreviated season with RSS and Our Motorsports.
The buzz was short-lived though, and with minimal sponsorship and no big team behind him, Retzlaff was fighting just to stay in the game.
More: NASCAR champ shares thoughts on how this Wisconsin driver’s chances could be better
With emerging Jordan Anderson Racing in 2023, Retzlaff managed seven top-10 finishes and placed an impressive 16th in points. The three-car team’s performance dropped off in ’24, and he ended up 21st and was on the move again.
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Retzlaff ended up at Alpha Prime, for which he recorded the team’s best finish, second at Rockingham, but he managed just two other top-10 results in 2025 and dropped one more spot in the points.
In October, though, Retzlaff’s agent, Austin Craven, connected him with Lange at Talladega. Before the season was out they had a deal in place for 2026, and Retzlaff had the earliest jump on a season he’d ever enjoyed.
“You have to go where you have opportunity, but I also think sometimes stuff doesn’t work out, it’s not a good fit, and you’ve kind of got to make the change even though if it is a little bit hard,” Retzlaff said.
“And then just trying to put yourself in the best position. I feel like Viking overall has been the best position I’ve ever been in, the most put-together and professional place I’ve ever been.”
RCR has helped Viking Motorsports make strides quickly
Viking owner Don Sackett, who built and sold two businesses in the portable chemical analysis industry, got his team off the ground in 2024 as a partnership with RSS. That allowed Viking to gain owner points to stand on its own in 2025. Although Sackett and Retzlaff coincidentally both gained entrée with Rod Sieg’s team, that had nothing to do with their subsequent connection, Lange said.
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Viking went with veteran Matt DeBenedetto in ’25 but let him go three races before the season ended, eventually hired Retzlaff and then later added a second team with driver Anthony Alfredo.
The team is still relatively small, with 18 employees. But an alliance with Richard Childress Racing helped Viking take a huge step forward. The opportunity opened up when Kaulig Racing left to enter the Craftsman Truck Series with Ram.
“I think I 100% expected to be this strong because we came into the year knowing what we had, the people we had,” Retzlaff said. “The car and stuff matters and all that, but I think with us having the ECR [Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines] and RCR alliance, we’re in the ballpark pretty well. So … it just then comes down to the guys and the people you have and how hard they work and all that stuff.
“The team’s in the second year of ever running, first year with all of us and basically everyone was brand new at the beginning of this year. They had a big refresh in the offseason of new stuff, new people … and it’s just all the experience and knowledge coming in the building and everyone putting their heads together and having the same goal and focusing on the same things.”
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The alliance with RCR gives Viking access to the data that helped Austin Hill win the opener at Daytona and put two cars in the top four in the standings. In turn, RCR benefits from the knowledge gained by Retzlaff and Alfredo and their crew chiefs and engineers.
“We’re still drinking from a fire hose of sorts,” Lange said. “We feel that these next four or five will allow us to catch our breath and kind of get our feet underneath us.”
Parker Retzlaff shows impressive leadership at age 22
JR Motorsports veteran Justin Allgaier leads the standings heading into Rockingham April 4 with Jesse Love of RCR, Sheldon Creed of Haas Factory Team and Hill of RCR in tow. Retzlaff ranks ninth, ahead of Rajah Caruth of JRM and Jordan Andreson Racing (10th), Sam Mayer of Haas (11th) and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Taylor Gray (12th) and William Sawalich (14th) among others.
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While crediting RCR, Lange also is quick to tip his cap to Retzlaff, who has exceeded expectations on and, perhaps more impressively, off the track.
“I can’t speak enough for him about his leadership skills as a 22-year-old young man, his ability, desire to do the best he can, is unique at that age. It just is,” Lange said.
“I’ll give a perfect example. He drove to Darlington in the van with the guys vs. drive himself. He’s one of the guys. I can’t say why he does it, except for the fact that he does do it, and it’s impressive. And it speaks volumes to the camaraderie that we’re building at Viking.
“He brings Chick-fil-A to the shop for the guys. After Vegas, he left the track early after the race and got In-N-Out Burger for all the guys. It’s just what he does.”
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Retzlaff recorded the team’s best finish Feb. 21 when he sneaked through a last lap crash at Atlanta and finished second to Creed.
It’s not so much the finish that has been the biggest highlight for Retzlaff, it’s the consistency he has developed over three full seasons and parts of two others. For someone who arrived at NASCAR’s second-highest level with minimal experience in full-sized stock cars, he’s being noticed – in a positive way – every week.
“In 2024 … I had two poles and I think we showed a lot of speed, but I think that I was still a little young, still put myself in some not very good positions,” he said, “and I ended up getting damage or wrecked because of putting myself in bad positions.
“So it’s been good this year to see the speed still be there but also be able to just be a little bit smarter and not try and push too hard and put [myself] in a bad spot.”
Parker Retzlaff leads a pack of cars in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race March 14 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Could Parker Retzlaff’s first win be around the next corner?
In Retzlaff’s mind there’s nothing really keeping him from winning this weekend or next or the one after that. It’s a matter of how and when, not if.
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“If you put yourself in that top five or even top seven area every week, at some point stuff has to fall in line for you to become a little bit lucky in the situation or just do everything right enough and have other people make mistakes enough to where you are in that position,” he said.
“You see people who have a lot less speed who end up winning races just because at some point you’re in a good enough spot and you fall into the position of it. … There’s just a lot of stuff that we can do better to try and put ourselves in a better position.”
Retzlaff was more frustrated than happy when he finished second at Atlanta. Lange reminded him that in terms of development, the team was still between the crawling and walking stages even if it “might sniff moments of running.”
“We want to chase checkered flags and race for wins, but we also know who we are,” Lange said. “I don’t think we ever envisioned it happening this fast or people talking about us this fast.”
But fast is what the sport’s all about.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin NASCAR racer Parker Retzlaff stuns Viking with fast start
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