XFINITY: Parker Retzlaff scores first series last-place finish by reason of water pump
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
SCREENSHOT: TheCW, @TheCW_Sports, taken by Steven Taranto, @STaranto92
Parker Retzlaff picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Friday’s Wawa 250 at the Daytona International Speedway when his #4 Dove Men + Care Chevrolet fell out with water pump issues after 30 of 104 laps.
The finish, which came in Retzlaff’s 98th series start, was his second of the season and first since Talladega, 13 races ago. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 1st for water pump issues, the 23rd for the #4, and the 671st for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 5th from the water pump, the 77th for the #4, and the 2,009th for Chevrolet.
Retzlaff now holds the lead in the 2025 LASTCAR XFINITY Series standings, taking the spot from Christian Eckes.
Last summer at Daytona, Retzlaff was making just his second career Cup start as part of a double-duty effort with sponsor Funkaway. On the last lap, he found himself second in the outside line, giving the critical shove to Harrison Burton that pushed Burton past Kyle Busch and into the lead, scoring the Wood Brothers their 100th victory. This time around, both drivers wouldn’t race on Saturday, and would compete against each other in the XFINITY race.
Since he was last feature on this site, Retzlaff has continued to endure a frustrating season at Alpha Prime Racing. He nearly scored two more last-place finishes in back-to-back races at Charlotte and Nashville, the result of a blown engine and early crash damage, but both times took 37th after another driver was disqualified. Two more crashes put him in the Bottom Five at Mexico City and Atlanta, the latter nearly putting him in last once more. Since then, he’s finished no worse than 28th, but no better than a 13th in Iowa.
The Daytona weekend marked a new chapter for Alpha Prime Racing with the introduction of a fourth team. Co-owners Tommy Joe Martins and Caesar Bacarella had acquired the Owner Points from the shuttered Our Motorsports team, and with it fielded their own #5 Chevrolet. Bacarella would debut the car in Daytona with sponsorship from 7-Eleven and Prime Bites, a product at Bacarella’s company Alpha Prime Supplements. Bacarella himself would drive.
Following the withdrawal of Mike Harmon Racing’s #74 Chevrolet for driver Logan Bearden, Retzlaff and Bacarella were among the 38 remaining entrants who would fill the field for Friday’s race. Without practice, and with qualifying cancelled by lightning, Retzlaff secured the 19th starting spot based on the rule book.
Securing the 38th and final starting spot was the #92 Wawa Chevrolet of Natalie Decker, marking her first NASCAR start since the birth of her first child back in February. She’d be joined at the back by Connor Zilisch, whose #88 WeatherTech Chevrolet was given the pole. Still recovering from his collarbone broken in a fall at victory lane in Watkins Glen, Zilisch would start the race, then hand over the wheel to relief driver Parker Kligerman at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime, the plan was to lag in the back of the pack without losing a lap.
After the field came down pit road for their pit speed check, Zilisch pulled to the apron entering Turn 1 and let the field roll past. He took the green in the back, his interval not showing since he was to start from pole. Zilisch was scored last by the end of Lap 1, now 3.381 behind, then moved back ahead of Decker on Lap 3, putting her #92 to last once more. On Lap 6, Decker moved past Caesar Bacarella, who was 37th across the stripe at the start. On Lap 8, Bacarella was warned to not lose the draft as he was now two-tenths back of 37th-place Zilisch, still lagging back and waiting for the caution.
That caution looked like it was going to happen on Lap 10, when Harrison Burton’s #25 DEX Imaging Ford spun out of 7th from contact from Matt DiBenedetto’s #99 Buddy Chevrolet. The incident surprised Burton, who said he was staying straight, and was told by his team that DiBenedetto pulled up but misjudged it. Burton spun halfway down the backstretch, but managed to regain control on the track’s spacious apron. The caution didn’t fall, so Burton limped back to the pits on the apron of Turns 3 and 4. As he did, his left-rear tire came apart, tearing away the crush panels. At one point, one of these panels burst into pieces, appearing to strike Burton in either his neck or shoulder. He also had fiberglass shards in his eyes, and tried to wash them out with a bottle of water. All this was difficult to relay to the team, however, as the radio button on his steering wheel had broken free, garbling his communications.
Burton took last on Lap 11, and the field rushed past in Turns 3 and 4 to put him a lap down. Though a crush panel was on the apron of Turn 3, the caution didn’t fall until Lap 12, when the edge of a rain storm crossed Turns 3 and 4. By then, Burton was two laps down on pit road. But since the caution didn’t come out for Burton’s incident, he earned the “Lucky Dog,” putting him just one lap down. Despite patches of silver tape above the left-front fender and additional repairs to the right-rear, Burton reported his car’s balance was fine other than a slight loose condition.
Retzlaff entered the last-place battle on Lap 16, when he was shown on pit road with the hood up. He’d lost at least one belt off the front of the engine, cutting off the water pump and also affecting the power steering. Retzlaff reported the car wasn’t overheating, the water temperature holding at 280 degrees. The team assembled their tools and a flashlight to replace the belt, then sent him back out. At the time, Retzlaff was still on the lead lap, and after others pitted climbed back to 32nd. But the team discussed making further repairs in the garage.
Further rain caused a red flag on Lap 21, sending the field down pit road. Burton had called for a rag and bottled water to address the debris in his eyes, and was ultimately visited by members of the AMR safety crew. He then said his eyes were fine, and said he’d also adjust to using the broken radio button rather than use tape or a zip-tie. Jamie McMurray interviewed Burton during the red flag as the team didn’t want that to take place on track.
Meanwhile, Retzlaff was told to not touch the ignition as the crew worked under the hood. The driver said he could still drive the car with the water pump issue, but the problem with the power steering kept him from running three-wide.
When the race finally restarted on Lap 24, Retzlaff pulled behind the wall for more substantial repairs on the belt system. By Lap 31, when Stage 1 ended, Retzlaff was 9 laps down in last place, and Burton was back on the lead lap. By then, Retzlaff’s battery had died, so another was swapped in before he returned to pit road about Lap 33. He stopped in his stall for final repairs, his last completed lap turned at 3,365.532 seconds (just over 56 minutes). On Lap 35, he was back on track, 12 laps down.
On the Lap 36 restart, Blaine Perkins had dropped to 37th for repairs to his #31 Chevrolet. He cleared the “Crash Clock” on Lap 37. The next time by, Retzlaff was trying not to lose the draft, not wanting to lose another lap. Also damaged earlier in the race was Carson Kvapil, whose #1 Jarrett Chevrolet was already running near the back of the field when he spun on Lap 40 and made it to pit road, again not drawing the caution. On Lap 42, as Kvapil returned to action, Retzlaff was back on pit road, his car pushed backwards into the garage area. “We’re done,” said the team. “I don't think we can fix anything more. I don't want to ride around another 15 laps and get wrecked.” Retzlaff’s social media tweeted that the car’s belts had broken once more, and NASCAR declared him out on Lap 54.
Finishing 37th was Anthony Alfredo, who battled his way from 32nd on the grid into the Top 10 before his #42 Dude Wipes Chevrolet lost power on the Lap 67 restart and wasn’t able to pull off the track. The 36th spot fell to Jeremy Clements, whose #51 All South Electric slammed the brakes to try and avoid a wrecking Taylor Gray’s #54 Operation 300 RED Toyota, but couldn’t avoid a collision, destroying the right-front of Clements’ car. The first of two even larger crashes completed the Bottom Five, starting on Lap 97, when the #39 Sci Aps Ford of Ryan Sieg’s block on Leland Honeyman, Jr.’s #70 DPR Construction Chevrolet triggered a pileup entering Turn 1. Taking 35th was Daniel Dye, whose #10 Martech Services Company Chevrolet collided with Sieg, and Josh Williams’ #45 Optum Chevrolet, which was also collected.
Thompson escapes, Smithley endures after last-lap Daytona wreck
After the Sieg incident with just four laps to go, Leland Honeyman, Jr. climbed to 4th for the overtime restart. But another move to the outside left him stranded in the high lane, and he was involved in the last-lap pileup in Turn 3, dropping him to 26th. That same wreck collected most of the drivers running behind 6th-place Brandon Jones – except Dean Thompson, who managed to escape the melee on the inside line to climb to 7th in his #26 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota.
Right behind Thompson in 8th was Garrett Smithley in the #14 True Brand Chevrolet. One week after finishing last for the first time in five years, Smithley had actually climbed up to 7th right before the wreck began, then managed to recover after his car was spun into the outside wall. This marked Smithley’s first top-ten finish since October 3, 2020 at Talladega, when he also finished 8th in another SS-Green Light Racing entry. Ryan Ellis nearly joined Smithley in the Top 10 before he was later scored 11th in the #71 Mike Albert Fleet Solutions Chevrolet.
Parker Kligerman took the checkered flag and Connor Zilisch scored the win, making Kligerman the first relief driver to win a NASCAR national series race since June 23, 2007, when Denny Hamlin stepped in for Aric Almirola at the Milwaukee Mile. Kligerman had just stepped away from full-time racing at the end of last season, after he’d nearly advanced to the Round of 8 with his first series victory until the caution fell an instant before he took the white flag. The win also took place at Daytona, a track where Kligerman won this year’s Truck Series opener, only to have the victory stripped away after he was disqualified for a post-race technical infraction - a moment that preceded the death of team owner Charlie Henderson in June.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first XFINITY Series last-place finisher to be listed out due to a water pump issue. In terms of the other series’ last-place finishes, it was the reason for three in Cup and one in Trucks.
*This was the first last-place finish for the #4 in a XFINITY race at Daytona since February 18, 2023, when Bayley Currey’s run for JD Motorsports ended after 8 laps due to a blown engine on his #4 Mikes Weather Page / Firman Chevrolet.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #4-Parker Retzlaff / 30 laps / water pump
37) #42-Anthony Alfredo / 67 laps / electrical
36) #51-Jeremy Clements / 89 laps / crash
35) #10-Daniel Dye / 96 laps / crash
34) #45-Josh Williams / 96 laps / crash
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Kaulig Racing (5)
2nd) Joe Gibbs Racing (4)
3rd) SS-Green Light Racing (3)
4th) Alpha Prime Racing, JR Motorsports, Sam Hunt Racing (2)
5th) Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, Mike Harmon Racing, Our Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, RSS Racing, Young’s Motorsports (1)
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (17)
2nd) Toyota (6)
3rd) Ford (1)
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
