DARLINGTON, S.C.: Sheldon Creed likely drove the best race of his NASCAR Xfinity Series career Saturday afternoon at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, but an untimely caution less than five laps from the finish of the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 left the Joe Gibbs Racing driver without a checkered flag.
Passing his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell within the final 10 laps of the race, Creed appeared all set to cruise to his first career Xfinity Series victory, but when AJ
Allmendinger and Cole Custer tangled while running inside the top-10 with four laps to go, the final caution flag of the race waved sending the race into overtime.
With tires at the end of their race life, Creed led the lead lap cars onto pit road for new tires and a hopeful two-lap shootout to the finish. Unfortunately, a nearly flawless day for Creed stalled as he left pit road in third after entering first.
A tick slower with the tire change left Creed on the outside lane for the restart. While Bell and Custer tackled for the race lead on the backstretch with two laps to go, the two were able to keep their vehicles pointed in the right direction, and the race took the white flag under green flag conditions.
Despite his best effort, Creed was unable to regain the speed of his race car from the run prior to the caution, desperately trying to chase Custer and Bell to the checkered flag.
Creed finished third, 0.834 seconds behind Bell, and visibly could be seen frustrated exiting his car on a brutally warm day in South Carolina.
“No. I lost one the same way a few years ago here,” said Creed after the race. “Just this has always been a really good place for me. I’ve always loved racing here.”
As far as his race craft or his on-track performance, Creed doesn’t believe he could have done anything differently.
“Just, man, I don’t know what to do to be any better than that,” added Creed. “I felt like I put in one of my best performances today. I love my pit crew, and they do a great job for us. I can’t blame that on them; we just got beat on pit road today, so bummer.”
The podium finish was Creed’s 11th top-five finish of the season and fifth top-10 in a row since Pocono (Pa.) Raceway in July.
While winless, Creed is fifth in the championship standings but a distant 139 points behind leader Justin Allgaier with three races remaining in the Xfinity regular season at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway, Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International and Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, respectively.
Follow Chris Knight on X (Twitter) @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
