Parker Retzlaff was driving the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet when he decided to go for the win at Daytona last week. The decision not only cost him the win though, it also took victory from veteran driver Kyle Busch with Richard Childress Racing (which is in a technical alliance with Beard Motorsports), which has led to some criticism and potential anger within the Chevy camp.
However, don't count Busch among those particularly upset with the 21-year-old driver. During a Saturday media availability, Busch was quick to say, "not me" when asked if Retzlaff owes him an apology.
"I don't really know him all that well so I don't know what sort of business relationships there are behind the scenes. Once upon a time when I owned a Truck Series team, we had other teams that we helped and we supported and we gave parts and pieces and resources and different things too. I don't know how all that stems for his relationship with Beard behind the scenes. So yeah, not to me. He didn't owe me nothing."
Busch was pushed on that, asked to further explain his opinion. “Well, we have our Chevrolet team meetings, our key meetings, key partner meetings before the race and he's not in one of those. So if you're not in one of those, then you should not be relied upon as a key partner to need to push and know the game that needs to be played. So that's how I look at it.”
A "frustrating" year for the 2x champ
Unless he wins the Southern 500 at Darlington, Busch will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2012. Beyond that, he currently holds the record for most consecutive seasons with a Cup win at 19. He has 11 races to keep that streak alive.
“Yeah, the whole season's been frustrating," admitted Busch. "Every week, it just kind of seems like, okay, what's next? But that's something that we can't change. Chris Buescher just said it beforehand, you know, there's a lot of things and a lot of questions that we have for ourselves and answers that we might not be able to answer exactly right now as to how our year has gone, but that's in the past, and you know you can use that as a distraction or a motivation tool, and we'll look to try to make that as a motivation tool. We did not run well here in the past.
"This race in the spring we did not run well, but we don't come in this weekend holding our heads low and thinking that we're gonna not run well again. We put our heads to paper and try to figure out why and said we're gonna go there with the best piece we can and try to kick their butt and get a win.”
