Viking Motorsports scores double top five run at Sonoma

Viking Motorsports continues to have a breakout season in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Now for the first time in team history, both of their drivers scored a top five in the same race. Anthony Alfredo finished in fourth, and Parker Retzlaff finished in fifth at Sonoma.

Alfredo and Retzlaff qualified in fourth and fifth respectively. When the green flag dropped, both cars held pace and Alfredo moved up to third around Taylor Gray in the opening laps. After the first restart of the race, Alfredo charged in hard on Brent Crews to overtake in turns one and two moving up to second. Retzlaff also advanced to fourth on Gray.

As race leader Shane Van Gisbergen flipped strategy with the stage ending, Alfredo and Retzlaff stayed out. Alfredo held off Crews and won his first career stage win in the O’Reilly series. Retzlaff finished in third.

In stage two, Alfredo had a close call in turn 11 after he bumped William Sawalich into Blaine Perkins causing the No. 31 to spin out. Alfredo came close to hitting Perkins but avoided him. Alfredo was able to climb back into the top ten on the long run. On strategy, Alfredo and Retzlaff flipped strategy this time instead and finished 24th and 26th respectively.

Alfredo and Retzlaff restarted the final stage in fourth and sixth respectively. Alfredo quickly moved up to third while Reztlaff fell to eighth. In the closing laps, Alfredo was caught in a tigth battle for third with Crews, Jesse Love, and Gray. Alfredo fell to fifth, but Retzlaff moved back up to sixth. Coming to the checkered flag, Gray ran out of gas which allowed both to finish right where they started.

Retzlaff currently sits ninth in points, 61 points above the Chase cutline. Retzlaff has earned a record setting nine top 10s in 2026. Alfredo has moved up to 16th in points, but sits 93 points below the Chase cutline.

The team’s upgrades made in the offseason included buying cars from Kaulig Racing and upgrading their alliance with Richard Childress Racing. Those upgrades in their two car expansion have clearly shown.

Post Race Comments

During a post race interview with the CW, Alfredo said, “this is exactly how I would’ve thought last week (Coronado) would’ve went.” “But to bounce back with the same speed and a car capable of running in the top five was great.” “I can’t say enough about Viking Motorsports everyone’s been working hard and it’s showing, this is the best opportunity I’ve ever had.”

Afterwards, Retzlaff was also interviewed by the CW and he said, “I didn’t come from being a road course guy and I’ve gotten a little bit better, worked on it a lot, and I think we’ve worked on it at Viking Motorsports.” “We’re building something really strong.”

If the momentum that Viking Motorsports has shown continues, a win for both Retzlaff and Alfredo could easily be in the cards.