AVONDALE, Ariz. — One week ago, Tommy Joe Martins had two of his three Alpha Prime Racing cars fail to qualify for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Circuit of the Americas.
It was one of the lowest points of his time as a team owner.
This week? He got two of his cars into the top 20.
Parker Retzlaff turned his COTA DNQ into an 11th-place effort. This run is his best of the season to date and best overall run for Alpha Prime Racing in 2025 thus far. It was a tale of persistence, as the race did not start how he wanted.
“We had a little fuel problem in the first stage,” Retzlaff said. “We drove from 26th to 12th, we had a little issue, talked about what we thought the best idea was [to fix it]. We filled it full of fuel and fixed the issue. It’s just a very good, hard-fought day after we didn’t qualify last week.”
As Retzlaff drove his way through the field, Martins had a mile-wide grin on his face, noting the resiliency of his organization.
“I’m extremely proud of the Nos. 44 & 4 teams,” Martins told Frontstretch. “For the 4 team to have the bounceback that they had, Parker [Retzlaff] drove an unbelievably good race.”
Retzlaff hovered around the back part of the Top 20 for much of the final stage and as the race progressed into a long green-flag run. A late spin from Nick Leitz forced an overtime finish, and Retzlaff capitalized to gain several positions.
Not only is 11th the best finish for Retzlaff this season, it’s his best Xfinity finish since he also ran 11th at Sonoma Raceway last year. It’s a much-needed confidence booster for him and APR as a whole.
“We knew we had a good car and could do it,” Retzlaff said. “I think we have a good, confident team behind us, and I think we can keep going.”
Brennan Poole finished 17th in the No. 44 for his third straight top-20 finish. Mason Massey came home 22nd in the No. 45, the only car one lap down. All three cars finished the race under power and were competitive, a huge step in the right direction for the organization and as immediate a turnaround as one can have after last week.
It felt like a race win for APR, and Martins thinks the momentum can carry over into the upcoming weeks.
“Every time you look up [at the leaderboard, Brennan] is in the top 20,” Martins said. “A lot of guys were high-fiving and proud of that. Especially down there on the [No.] 4 team, they were really excited. And that’s just a little catharsis from last week, right?”
“They got off to a tough start, but this is the kind of stuff they can do week in and week out. So we’re going to go to some real racetracks instead of whatever the hell we’ve been doing the last little bit, and I think we’re gonna be a lot closer to this.”
Positive momentum is contagious, and the organization has gone from having one of its worst days ever to one of its best.
“We think we’re a lot closer to this team than the other team from last week,” Martins said. “[Having] three cars in the top 22, so proud of the [No.] 45 guys too.
“This is what we’ve talked about wanting to be.”
Kevin Nix has been with Frontstretch since February 2023. Hailing from Gilbert, Arizona, his dream is to be in the NASCAR media sphere full-time. He is a video assistant, working on the back end to streamline video and audio quality of all at-track interviews. Nix also writes about news every Monday for the site.
Nix graduated with a Master's Degree in Sports Journalism from ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona. He also has bachelor's degrees in Communications and Political Science. In his downtime, he likes to read, play video games and take walks in the Arizona weather - when it's not too hot.