“Nothing he could have done to help the No. 8”: NASCAR insider defends Parker Retzlaff’s move that destroyed Kyle Busch’s potential Daytona win

NASCAR insider Taylor Kitchen has explained that Kyle Busch’s Daytona loss was not Parker Retzlaff’s fault. She added that there was nothing the Beard Motorsports driver could’ve done to help the Richard Childress Racing driver as Christopher Bell was already on the inside line behind Busch's #8 Chevy.

The Coke Zero Sugar 400 was the 25th Cup Series race and witnessed multiple collisions and cautions during the second and final stages. As a result, Busch and Harrison Burton grabbed the front-row spot with Bell and Retzlaff behind them, respectively.

Busch took the white flag as the leader and neared his maiden victory of the season, while Burton was running second. But the Wood Brother Racing driver got pushed by Retzlaff's #62 Chevy and gained momentum over the two-time Cup Series champion. Meanwhile, as Busch relied on his draft, he couldn’t gain enough space to retake the lead from Burton's #21 Ford.

As a result, the WBR driver punched his playoff ticket while the RCR driver was put in a must-win scenario to secure his spot. Addressing the playoff situation, an X (formerly Twitter) user said:

“Chevy/RCR yelled at Parker Retzlaff Saturday night at Daytona for not helping Kyle Busch get the win.”

Taylor Kitchen responded by highlighting the overtime restart order and said:

"The choose order: Kyle Busch, Harrison Burton, Christopher Bell, Parker Retzlaff. Bell picked the inside line behind Kyle Busch. There was truly nothing Parker Retzlaff could have done to help the No. 8 at that point that would have been safe for his competitors and fair to the position he put himself in to win the race."

If Kyle Busch fails to make the playoffs, it will be the first time since his full-time debut in 2005 that he will not fight for the Cup Series championship.

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“I didn’t intend to push a Ford to the win”: Parker Retzlaff on the final lap incident at Daytona

As per Taylor Kitchen, Parker Retzlaff couldn’t have done anything to let Kyle Busch win safely. The rookie Cup Series driver who marked his second race at Daytona was criticized for his final-lap move, but several from the NASCAR community defended the Beard Motorsports driver. This included Denny Hamlin's crew chief Chris Gabehart, Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, and legendary driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., to name a few.

Retzlaff expanded on the final lap move and said he didn’t want the race to conclude the way it did. At the same time, the 21-year-old outlined wanting to churn the best possible result for his sponsor, FunkAway. The Coke Zero Sugar 400 was his sponsor's debut Cup Series race. He said (via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio):

"I didn’t want to push a Ford to the win necessarily but FunkAway has supported me for the last two years in NASCAR and it was their first Cup race and I wanted to do whatever in my power to give them a good result and put my name on the map. The end of the race is not how I wanted it to work, pushing a Ford, but I also didn’t want to give away a result for FunkAway and how they’ve supported me." [00:19]

The Final Appeals Officer has upheld Austin Dillon's penalty. Thus, both RCR drivers are in a must-win situation. However, only one can make the playoffs.