MILWAUKEE — The list of Wisconsin NASCAR racers is growing. But you might know the least about Parker Retzlaff.
"Because I'm not on everybody's radar, you know, so to speak," Parker Retzlaff says. "So I think, you know, just trying to continue to get better. And not let anything you know, not get, like you know cocky about anything or anything. Just stay where I'm at and just continue to try and get better because I know I'm not where I need to be to compete at the top level of the sport."
He grew up in Rhinelander with a working-class Dad who took him to races.
"My Dad just owns a sewer drain cleaning business and an air duct cleaning business," Retzlaff says. "So he just, you know, he's still up there. He still lives in Rhinelander so he's still up there working every day and just trying to support me as much as he can."
And he raced in the Northwoods.
"I grew up doing a lot of racing at State Park Speedway in Wausau," Retzlaff says. "And then I raced the Midwest Truck series all over Wisconsin. It was like a traveling series. It was the first time I did like a traveling big series like that. So just, all that stuff. Just learning the short track racing, so that's been a big learning curve."
Now, he hopes to become a name you remember.
"I think that's the hope is for, you know to be named with those people that came from Wisconsin," Retzlaff says. "There's so many, you know, good race car drivers and well-known race car drivers that came from Wisconsin, so you know I guess the hope is that one day is that your name is included in that list. You know in the next 3 years, I hope to, you know, win multiple Xfinity races and you know, hopefully I guess everyone's goal is always to win a championship and then look at the future coming forward after that."
But as a Rhinelander native, even he has an issue with the city's mascot.
Lance Allan: And when people ask you what is a Hodag, how do you describe it?
"I don't know," Retzlaff says. "I got nothing. I've had this conversation with my friends before and I got no way of describing what is, it's like a, you know, mysterious monster."
And as a 20-year-old living in North Carolina, he misses some Wisconsin classics.
"I think me and my girlfriend are going to get to go to Noah's Ark," Retzlaff says. "And that was the big thing for me growing up is going to Noah's Ark."
Retzlaff joins Sam Mayer as well as Josh Bilicki as Wisconsin regulars on the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
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