By Seth Eggert, Associate Editor
DARLINGTON, S.C. – Although a late-race caution at Darlington Raceway ended Sheldon Creed’s chance at finally scoring his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory, the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) driver still ran one of his best races to date.
The driver of the No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota GR Supra ran down Christopher Bell several times to take the lead. Creed’s tire management in the Sport Clips VFW Help a Hero 200 allowed him to outpace his teammate throughout the long runs. However, a caution for A.J. Allmendinger losing a right front tire and hitting the wall erased the Alpine, Calif. native’s lead.
Creed, like others, ducked onto pit road for fresh Goodyear Racing tires. Despite entering pit road first, he left third after a slow pit stop, one that was nearly two seconds slower than his competitors’ stops. The 26-year-old chose to line up behind his JGR teammate on the outside in fourth.
“I was optimistic at first,” Creed said. “Chris has been really good all day. I just I thought I figured we would come in first and leave (pit road) first and I needed to at least probably be on the front row for a green, white, checker like that and just did my best with restarting fourth like that. I’m obviously really bummed because today was our day, and I felt like I put in one of my best performances and to have a caution like that ruin it sucks.”
Creed easily cleared Chase Elliott and Sammy Smith for third as Bell and Cole Custer battled for the lead. Contact between the two almost sent the JGR driver into the inside wall. Though Creed thought that might give him a chance, the defending Xfinity champion backed off of Bell and allowed him to maintain control. That forced the No. 18 to settle in for third-place when the checkered flag waved in overtime.
“I was hoping that was going to be more than it was, had that probably not been the 00, it probably would have been bigger than it was,” Creed admitted. “I’m sure Cole lifted or got off of him. I thought for a second it might land back in our lap there, but I’m just proud of everyone’s really fast race cars the last few weeks. I don’t know what we need to do for luck to change it.”
Creed ended the first stage in sixth before winning the largely caution-free Stage 2. The third-place finish is his 11th top-five of the season and comes two weeks after his record-breaking 11th career runner-up finish at Michigan Int’l Speedway. Creed preferred the third-place over another runner-up.
“I’m glad I didn’t run second again, at this point I’ll run third before I run second,” Creed joked.
The top-five finish moved Creed up from seventh to fifth in the points standings. He is 139-points behind leader Justin Allgaier and is 99 ahead of the playoff cutline, currently held by Smith.
Next for Creed is the Focused Health 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In five starts at the 1.54-mile track he has one top-five and two top-10 finishes.
The Focused Health 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway is scheduled for Saturday, September 7 at 3:00 p.m. on USA Network. The race will also be broadcast on both the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.