Parker Retzlaff pushing Harrison Burton to the win at Daytona has dominated conversations this week. Kyle Busch has now weighed in, saying that the young driver didn't owe him anything.
"Well, we have our Chevrolet team meetings, our key meetings, key partner meetings before the race and he's not in one of those," Busch said of Retzlaff.
"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."
Busch and Burton were the drivers on the front row for the final restart last weekend at Daytona International Speedway. The choose order played out to where Christopher Bell was the first driver behind Busch.
Retzlaff had the option of lining up behind Bell on the third row or behind Burton on the second row. He chose the second row.
Once the green flag waved, Retzlaff, a Chevrolet driver, pushed Burton, a Ford driver, to the lead. Busch did not receive as much assistance from Bell and the drivers behind him as he could not stop Burton's run.
This decision to push Burton was not made in support of the Ford driver. Instead, Retzlaff explained that he wanted to get Burton clear so that he could then try to challenge for the win.
"Yeah, I mean, the end of the race was definitely not what we hoped for," Retzlaff said during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "I'm not going to get into the -- whatever, I guess -- the backend stuff but it was definitely not what I wanted to happen at the end of the race.
"I didn't want to push a Ford to the win necessarily, but Funkaway has supported me for the last two-and-a-half years of racing in NASCAR, and it was their first Cup race. I wanted to do everything I could in my power to give them a good result and kind of try and put my name on the map."
This plan did not pay off. Retzlaff ultimately finished seventh while Burton won the race. Busch finished second instead of winning his way into the playoffs and extending his record to 20 consecutive seasons with at least one win.
Retzlaff did not get into details about his post-race conversations with Chevrolet. Although he reportedly backlash from the manufacturer. Daytona is a track where drivers from each manufacturer traditionally work together and make their pit stops together.
Retzlaff was part of the Chevrolet group as he drove a car featuring an ECR engine. However, he didn't have the full game plan available to him as other Chevrolet drivers did.
"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," Busch said. "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."