SONOMA, Calif. — To no one’s surprise, Kyle Larson smoked the NASCAR Xfinity Series field in practice for Saturday’s DoorDash 250, running a second faster than the next fastest car at Sonoma Raceway..
The No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet posted a blistering lap of 79.255-seconds (90.392mph).
Best in Class? Sheldon Creed. In his second of 17 circuits around the 1.99-mile road course, the driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevy’s lap of 80.435-seconds was P2 on the speed chart. Certainly, the momentum of coming off of a seventh-place finish at Portland International Raceway doesn’t hurt.
“It feels good, right, because points are so important right now during the summer stretch to lock ourselves into the Playoffs because we’ve yet to win,” Creed said. “The car feels OK. A lot of us are complaining about similar things, but I think it’s just because none of us have been here (in an Xfinity Series car).
“I’ll probably try to talk to some of the guys that have been here a few times, like AJ (Allmendinger) or Kyle (Larson). The 17 is stupid fast. Their Cup cars are really fast here and then that thing’s out of the Hendrick shop. So he’ll probably be in a league of his own. But I think I’ll be able to race everyone else.”
Compared with Larson and Allmendinger, Creed has limited experience on road courses. This is the Xfinity Series debut in wine country. However, the 25-year-old Alpine, Californian came from 15th to finish ninth in his second K&N Pro Series start here at Sonoma in 2017.
“I came here straight from off-road so I didn’t know a whole lot,” Creed said. “This was probably one of my first road course races. I loved it then and I like it even more now. This is probably one of my favorites.
“It’s just super technical. It’s very difficult. Tires wear out right away. I feel like it puts a lot of responsibility into the driver’s hands here. It’s really hard.”
Overall, Creed has been pretty sporty on road courses throughout his NASCAR career. During his Craftsman Truck Series tenure at GMS, Creed won on the Daytona Road Course and had an average finish of 2.5 when turning left and right.
“We didn’t race a whole lot of road courses in trucks,” Creed said. “So it was cool to get a Daytona Road Course win in the truck. And now, I think we just struggle with our cars on the ovals. They just don’t drive good to be honest.”
Still, Creed believes RCR’s road course equipment is pretty decent. Compared with ovals, he feels road course racing is more driver-dependent.
“I feel on a road course I have more manipulation of what the car does. I can turn and use the gas and brakes. It shines more, it shows more on a road course rather than on an oval. Everyone’s good now, so it just comes down to whose cars drive the best.
“Obviously, you want to be smart and put together good races, which we’ve struggled to do. But at the end of the day, we’re just not a winning car on the ovals.”
Creed is in his second full season on the Xfinity Series tour. He’s battling to regain the consistency he enjoyed in trucks,where he won eight of 45 races in his final two seasons, earned the 2020 title and finished fifth in the standings in 2021, barely missing the Championship 4 round before moving to a full-time Xfinity Series ride at RCR for 2022.
Creed finished 14th in the standings last year with four top fives and 13 top 10s. He is currently seventh in points entering Sonoma. Did he anticipate the leap from trucks to Xfinity would be this large?
“No,” Creed said. “But I think if I went to a different team, maybe it wouldn’t have been this much. I came at a time where RCR has struggled. It’s not just been myself but the Kaulig cars—all of us.
“This year has been better than ’21. Obviously, our speedway stuff is fast. I don’t think it’s me. I do need to put together better races. But I think it’s more of the car.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer.
