XFINITY: Daniel Dye disqualified after top-ten run, bumping Retzlaff out of last place for a second-straight race
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Daniel Dye, @danieldye43
Daniel Dye picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 at the Nashville Superspeedway when his #10 Race To Stop Suicide Chevrolet finished 9th, but was disqualified after completing all 188 laps.
The finish, which came in Dye’s 26th series start, was his second of the year and first since the season opener at Daytona, 13 races ago. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 21st by disqualification, the 76th for the #10, 664th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 65th by disqualification, the 137th for the #10, and the 1,991st for Chevrolet.
Parker Retzlaff picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 at the Nashville Superspeedway when his #4 Dove Men + Care Chevrolet was collected in a wreck after 35 of 188 laps.
The finish, which came in Retzlaff’s 88th series start, was his second of the year and first since Talladega, three races ago. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 23rd for the #4, the 411st from a crash, and the 664th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 76th for the #4, the 1,419th from a crash, and the 1,991st for Chevrolet.
In his first full-time season in the XFINITY Series, one where his Kaulig Racing teammate Christian Eckes’ struggles have kept him atop the LASTCAR standings for 2025, Dye has enjoyed a strong season. He immediately rebounded from his Lap 6 wreck in Daytona by finishing 7th the next week in Atlanta, his first of five top-ten finishes through the first 13 races of the season. In that span, he’s only finished worse than 19th once – a 31st-place run last week in Charlotte, the result of a late-race crash that was his first DNF since Daytona.
Dye again showed impressive speed in Nashville. He started off 3rd in practice, trailing only Kyle Sieg and Sammy Smith with a lap of 31.357 seconds (152.693mph). In qualifying, he matched his speed to a thousandth of a second, but this time it only ranked him 19th. Failing to qualify were a returning Glen Reen in Joey Gase’s #35 New Wave Bath Chevrolet, and Katherine Legge in the #32 e.l.f. Cosmetics Chevrolet.
Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Mason Massey, one of Retzlaff’s part-time teammates at Alpha Prime Racing, in the #45 Brunt Chevrolet. While no drivers incurred pre-race penalties that sent them to the tail end of the field, Massey took the green flag in 37th, 3.712 seconds back of the leader, inching ahead of 37th-place qualifier Logan Bearden in the #14 T3 Vodka Chevrolet (3.795). By the end of Lap 1, the spot fell to Kris Wright, whose #5 F.N.B. Corporation Chevrolet was 4.986 seconds back of the lead. On Lap 4, Wright pulled alongside Bearden, the two separated by just six-hundredths of a second, before Bearden held him off, opening up a half-second gap. Massey then slipped back to 37th, and Wright pulled alongside him at the line, dropping the #45 back to last by just five-hundredths. Wright then pulled away by a half-second, leaving Massey 12.113 seconds back of the lead.
As the field ran single-file, drivers were told to get as much clean air on their noses as possible, moving either a half-lane up or down of the car in front of them. But Massey was now fighting a tight condition, dropping him a half-second back of 37th-place Wright. On Lap 13, Wright cleared Mason Maggio, who briefly caught the eye of TheCW’s cameras as his #53 Flitz Polish Ford dropped down the rankings. For a time, Massey was catching Maggio, but by Lap 16, Massey was told to “paint the bottom,” holding the inside line, as he’d fallen 20.951 back of the leaders. “I can’t turn it hard enough to get it to the bottom,” he said. The plan was then to do the best he could until the next caution, where he’d get adjustments. For now, that meant the end of Stage 1 on Lap 45. On Lap 23, Massey said the tight condition wasn’t getting worse, that it stayed the same. Three laps later, he was the first to lose a lap when then-leader William Sawalich cleared him off Turn 4. On Lap 32, Maggio in 37th lost a lap, taking the “Lucky Dog” from Massey, and by Lap 36, there were just 33 cars on the lead lap.
On Lap 36, working their way through Turns 3 and 4, Retzlaff was racing door-to-door outside Kyle Sieg, who was fastest in practice in RSS Racing’s #28 Shannon Speck’s Electric Ford, but tumbled to 28th in qualifying. Coming off the corner, Sieg’s car snapped loose, then got into Retzlaff’s driver’s side door. The contact sent Retzlaff skating up the track, where he smashed the outside wall with the left-rear, then left-front. Sieg spun to avoid the #4, then managed to continue under power. Retzlaff pulled down pit road, promptly taking over the last spot as he fell a lap down on Lap 37.
A damaged Retzlaff rolls onto pit road under caution. (PHOTO: Steven Taranto, @STaranto92)
Now in Stall 13 on the Turn 1 side, Retzlaff’s crew prepared to change four tires and apply bear-bond, only to find “Something’s off, cause the toe’s off a mile.” The crew looked under the hood, then decided to go to the garage. Since the entrance was nine stalls behind them, the crew went back behind the wall as the leaders made their stops. With Retzlaff already four laps down on Lap 40, the team pushed the car backwards into the garage, NASCAR reporting him out under the “Damaged Vehicle Policy” (DVP). According to Retzlaff, Sieg blamed him for the accident for racing him too close in Turn 4.
A sluggish restart on Lap 61 resulted in a multi-car pileup that ended the day for both 37th-place Ryan Ellis in the #71 Tablo TV x Rich Mar Florist Chevrolet and Christian Eckes in the #16 Celsius Chevrolet, both after colliding with cars in front of them. William Sawalich, the polesitter, led the opening 37 laps, then spun into the grassy backstretch on Lap 135, ultimately leading to late-race engine trouble that placed him 35th. Rounding out the group was Dean Thompson, whose #26 MCM Transportation Toyota finished four laps down at the checkered flag.
Meanwhile, Daniel Dye led three laps during Retzlaff’s caution, then battled his way into the Top Ten for most of the final stage. At one point, he threw a block in the tri-oval to defend his position, and he charged on the tri-oval apron to pass Jesse Love. Dye came across the finish line 9th, gaining the attention of the booth for TheCW. But in post-race inspection, it was announced his #10 failing rear heights. This resulted in a disqualification that bumped Retzlaff out of last place for a second-straight race. It also moved Dean Thompson out of the Bottom Five and Mason Maggio out of the Bottom Ten.
Day shows persistence in Nashville
Running double-duty with the Truck Series, where he finished a career-best 5th on Friday, Corey Day spun the #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet off Turn 2 early in the race, then recovered to finish 12th. Day has now finished better in all three of his career XFINITY Series races, improving from a 21st in his debut at Martinsville, then 16th in Texas before a 12th on Saturday.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the third last-place finisher by disqualification in the last five XFINITY Series races, and the first back-to-back disqualifications in the XFINITY Series since July 5, 2019, when A.J. Allmendinger was disqualified a week after Christopher Bell incurred the same penalty at Chicagoland on June 29th.
*Dye is the first XFINITY Series driver to be classified last after leading at least one lap since August 17, 2024, when Riley Herbst led 4 laps before a crash.
*This was the first last-place finish for the #10, and the first XFINITY driver to be classified last by disqualification at the Nashville Superspeedway.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #10-Daniel Dye / 188 laps / disqualified / led 3 laps
37) #4-Parker Retzlaff / 35 laps / crash
36) #71-Ryan Ellis / 98 laps / crash
35) #16-Christian Eckes / 98 laps / crash
34) #18-William Sawalich / 163 laps / running / led 37 laps
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Kaulig Racing (4)
2nd) Joe Gibbs Racing (3)
3rd) Alpha Prime Racing, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, JR Motorsports, Our Motorsports, Sam Hunt Racing, SS-Green Light Racing, Young’s Motorsports (1)
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (10)
2nd) Toyota (4)
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
