Think back to the landscape of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series on March 30, 2024, when the series ran at Richmond Raceway.
Joe Gibbs Racing finished 1-2-3 with Chandler Smith capturing the checkered flag for the 207th NOAPS win in the team’s then-27 year history. Parker Retzlaff was the surprise polesitter, but fizzled out to a 32nd-place finish in a Jordan Anderson Racing entry. Meanwhile, a new owner officially entered the sport. The owner’s name was Don Sackett, his new team was Viking Motorsports, and he officially fielded the No. 38 Ford.
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While it was technically entered under RSS Racing, it was definitely a collaborative effort. RSS had the crew chief, pit crew and hauler. Viking brought the driver — Matt DiBenedetto — the car, the spotter and the sponsorship. When they finished 18th at Richmond, both teams split the prize winnings. Everyone got what they needed. Everyone won.
RSS, a team that had failed to qualify the No. 38 twice before the partnership, received support for a third car for the rest of the year. For Sackett and his Viking team, it was like the NASCAR equivalent of learning to ride a bike with training wheels, figuring out how everything worked without the full brunt of punishment for a misstep.
Just under two years since that race in Richmond, the training wheels are clearly off.
Viking Motorsports looked to be the ultimate sink-or-swim team coming into 2026. New drivers, new crew chiefs, expanded operations. After the season’s sixth race at Darlington Raceway, one of those new drivers, Retzlaff, sat ninth in the driver’s points.
The driver that’s ahead of Retzlaff by one point? Brandon Jones of Joe Gibbs Racing. The other two full-time JGR drivers are a few spots behind him. That’s just some of the competition that Viking has been able to hang with after just two years.
“It’s more of a race against teams that’ve been together for 50 years, and we’re in year two trying to build a whole new team with people that’ll work together and get all the resources correct in terms of how it should be done,” Retzlaff said after an eighth-place finish at Darlington. “I think we’re doing a great job, and it all starts with the leadership from Don, who owns Viking, Jeremy (Lange) our GM, and all the guys who put in the hard work.”
Retzlaff looked like one of the hottest new prospects in NASCAR when he arrived on the scene in 2022, starting and finishing 10th in his second career start at, coincidentally, Richmond. In his first full-time season, he put together four straight top-15 finishes, then another similar span that spanned the last four races of 2023 and the first two of 2024.
Then, midway through that 2024 season, Retzlaff seemed to hit a wall. After finishing 11th at Sonoma Raceway, he’d go the rest of the season without a better result.
When he transitioned to Alpha Prime Racing in 2025, he went on the ultimate roller coaster ride of a season. He failed to qualify at Circuit of the Americas, then bounced back to finish 11th at Phoenix Raceway the next week. He followed a best career finish of second at Rockingham Speedway with five DNFs over the next seven races. The rest of the year saw him have more finishes of 27th or worse (seven) than finishes in the top 16 (six).
The hype for Retzlaff had cooled off significantly by the time he signed with Viking, but he was far from completely written off. Now, he has five top-15 finishes in the first six races and everyone is buzzing about the 22-year-old from Wisconsin again.
It’s not just Retzlaff powering strong performances for Viking. Teammate Anthony Alfredo finished 12th at Darlington, and despite a nightmare start to his season at Daytona International Speedway, sits 16th in the points with just six points separating him and the first Chase cutoff spot currently held by William Sawalich.
Alfredo, still only 26, is another driver who’s been written off by many for lackluster performances in the Cup Series. He’s had solid years in mid-tier cars in the O’Reilly Series over recent years, and a breakout season with Viking would do a lot to change that perception. Plus, it’s kind of hard to completely dismiss a guy that Hendrick Motorsports trusts to help their Cup drivers with sim work.
Retzlaff’s crew chief is Danny Efland, the man who helped AM Racing and Harrison Burton reach the playoffs last season. Alfredo is being guided by crew chief Joshua Graham, who guided Daniel Hemric to a win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series last season. While both of their former drivers and teams are struggling to find a foothold early in 2026, Efland and Graham have their teams succeeding well ahead of schedule.
If this is what Viking Motorsports can manage in two years, imagine where it could be in two more. Better yet, where could it be in six months? If their drivers can do something they’ve struggled to do in their young careers — string together consistent results without massive downswings — the answer might be the Chase.
For as much as the powerhouses of the series — JR Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Haas Factory Team and JGR — dominate the top of the standings, there’s usually a spot or two open every season for a mid-tier team to sneak into the playoffs. The leader of that group in 2026, so far, is Viking Motorsports.
Then again, if it took two years to climb to the top of that pile, could Viking wind up among the series elite soon?
