By Holly Cain – NASCAR Wire Service
Sheldon Creed wins the first race of the NASCAR O’Reilly Series Chase at Darlington Raceway in Saturday night’s Fleetio 200.
DARLINGTON, SC – It took Sheldon Creed 138 races to finally win his first career NASCAR O’Reilly Parts Series win this February in Atlanta. He earned his second Cup on Saturday night, and the timing couldn’t have been better as the Californian opened the nine-race Chase for the season championship with a visit to Victory Lane in the Fleetio 200 at Darlington (SC) Raceway.
Sheldon Creed wins at Darlington
Creed took the lead after his crew made a quick pit stop to replace his No. 00 putting the Haas Factory Team Chevrolet at the front of the field for the restart with 49 laps remaining. The 2020 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion took it from there and held the lead until the checkered flag, crossing the finish line 2.961 seconds ahead of Hendrick Motorsports rookie Corey Day, who also turned in an impressive effort in the opening Chase.
During his career, Creed performed particularly well at the famous 1.366-mile Darlington Oval, known as the track “Too Tough to Tame”. His performance Saturday marked his seventh top-10 finish in nine starts at Darlington. He was runner-up here in 2022 and won two truck races here in 2021.
“I wanted O’Reilly to win here and to finally get it is incredible,” said Creed, 29, admitting his team tried a different strategy early in the race that put him close enough to the front to take advantage of a clutch pit stop.
“In the end it worked out well and was able to finish second and the pit crew did a great job putting us in the lead. Was able to monitor it from there. Just prayed it wasn’t a caution. Thank you very much.”
Four of the 12 Chase-eligible drivers finished in the top five. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brent Crews was third, though ineligible for the driver’s title, but the finish was crucial as the crew’s No. 19 JGR Toyota claims the owner’s championship.
Chase drivers JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill were fourth and fifth in their Chevrolets.
Regular season champion, JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier led 60 of the 147 laps and ran in the top five all night. But his No. 7 Chevrolet hit the wall with 23 laps remaining as he tried to rally from fourth. He was forced to age the car home in the final laps and ended up finishing 17th, snapping a ten-race streak of finishing in the track’s top ten.
More importantly, the disappointing finish at a track where he has won four times reduced his lead in the championship standings from 35 points to just seven points ahead of Creed, with eight races remaining to be crowned champion.
Allgeier, the top six-race winner this season, had a massive 229-point lead in the standings before points were restored for this nine-race Chase championship run.
“Our Chevrolet was really good tonight and I felt like when we went out there we were able to save the tires, really cruise and our pace was really good,” said 2024 series champion Allgaier, who won Stage 1.
“And then somewhere in the middle of the second stint I started to feel like we weren’t as good as we should have been and the last part of the race there, we just didn’t have the car we needed at the end. And obviously, I was just trying to hang in there and do whatever I could.”
Viking Motorsports driver Anthony Alfredo finished sixth, followed by Chase drivers JGR’s Taylor Gray and Creed teammate Sam Mayer. South Carolina native Jeremy Clements, who is not eligible for the championship, finished ninth for his fourth top ten showing of the year.
Chase driver Brandon Jones rounded out the top ten. Other title-eligible drivers Parker Retzlaff and Raja Caruth were 21st and 26th, respectively.
It was a particularly eventful night for Carruth, who is vying for his first series championship. He rallied from two laps down early in the race and was running well in the top ten with 45 laps to go. But the same fueling issue that set him back early in the race resurfaced with seven laps remaining and forced him out of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in the final laps.
“We were respectable in the first round before we had a fuel assembly problem,” Carruth said, noting he wasn’t yet positive what the problem was.
“I’m so proud of all our efforts,” he continued. But we got up to sixth place and were in a good position for a good result.
“But it happens. It’s a sport … we’ll be good for next week.”
JR Motorsports’ Kvapil is now third in points, 19 points ahead of Allgaier. Hill is fourth, 36 points back, and Day is now fifth, 46 points off the pace.
“There’s still a long way to go but we’ve got to keep finishing forward and get every point,” Creed said.
Next
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns next Saturday for the second running of the Chase in the Nu Way 225 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Gateway. The race begins at 7:30 PM ET with coverage on The CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Current NASCAR Cup Series rookie Connor Zielisch is the defending race winner.
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