Parker Retzlaff, APR Enjoy Cigars After Turnaround Top 10 at Gateway

MADISON, Ill. — On a night where Connor Zilisch celebrated yet another win and 11 other drivers celebrated making the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs, one of the biggest celebrations took place at the Alpha Prime Racing haulers on Saturday night (Sept. 6).

Team co-owner Tommy Joe Martins puffed on a cigar and Parker Retzlaff was covered in confetti. Hugs and smiles spread around to crew members and family members like they were contagious.

It was all for Retzlaff scoring an eight-place finish in the Nu Way 200 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Well, Retzlaff noted that the confetti might’ve been for his 100th NXS start as well.

On the surface, a top 10 may not seem like something worthy of such a celebration.

But after the summer that Retzlaff and his No. 4 team had, it was a huge deal.

It was their first top 10 since finishing second at Rockingham Speedway in April. In the 16 races since then, the Wisconsin native has had seven DNFs, ranging from blown engines to crashes to electrical issues to a faulty water pump.

“I think that this just shows when everything doesn’t go wrong,” Retzlaff told Frontstretch. “I feel like we’ve had a couple of other good weeks that I felt like we were really good and just had stuff go wrong. I mean last week, we were probably not great, but like probably top-20 car and just had something that’s never happened before and just an alternator fire and just a whole mess.

“So overall, it’s been a little bit rough, but we’re going in the right direction.”

Anytime an APR car gets a top 10, Martins celebrates by passing out cigars and smoking one. This was no different on Saturday.

“It’s really big for [Retzlaff’s team],” Martins told Frontstretch. “Gosh, they’ve just had some really bad luck here lately, so that was a really big moment for them to get a top 10, and it was an awesome day for the entire organization.”

All three Alpha Prime cars finished inside the top 20 for the first time this season, with Brennan Poole scoring his fourth straight top 15 and rookie Lavar Scott climbing from 36th to 19th in just his second career start.

“That’s one of the better days we’ve had this year,” Martins said. “It’s really awesome and makes me really proud of the whole guys. Each one of them kind of had to overcome something different in the race to get the finish they did. So it’s just really, really cool.”

Retzlaff started the race in 26th, and it took until late in the race for him to finally emerge into the top 10. Even after the great result, he is left wondering where he might have finished had he started closer to the front.

“It was just so hard to pass there early,” Retzlaff said. “I got stuck between 15th and 20th and just couldn’t go anywhere. As soon as I got some track position, it was really, really good and the car felt really good. So I just needed some track position.

“It was probably my qualifying lap earlier. I was messed up, kind of mad at myself all day about it, and I’m glad it ended up good for the whole team.”

Even if Retzlaff was mad at himself after qualifying, he and Crew Chief Joe Williams did not give up, something Martins said they have not done all year.

“I mean, we’ve been sitting here scratching our heads a couple times as to what we’re doing wrong,” Martins said of Retzlaff’s rough patch. “I’ll give that team credit, like Joe Williams and that bunch, they’ve never showed up at the racetrack and thought they were not gonna be good.

“And same with Parker, feels like after we got clear of Sonoma, that group really came together, and I feel like there’s been speed. So to see that show up here, we knew this was the type of racetrack they’d have some speed at. In qualifying, I think they were a little disappointed. Parker was disappointed in himself, so for him to go wherever he was — I think he started 26th and wound up in the top 10 — that’s a really strong effort.