Creed Uses Fresh Tires To Grab Another Top Five

Sheldon Creed (18) races ahead of Matt Dibenedetto (38) and Parker Kligerman Saturday afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Nigel Kinrade/Toyota Racing photo)

INDIANAPOLIS – Sheldon Creed stayed in contention among the frontrunners all day long and picked up a fifth-place finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Saturday with the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

After starting 12th, Creed ended up earning a stage point by working his way into 10th at the second stage break, setting himself up to advance further in the final 40 laps of the Pennzoil 250 at the Brickyard.

Creed used the choose rule to advance to the outside of row four for the ensuing lap-66 restart, then had to avoid a spinning Aric Almirola to keep his No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota GR Supra in one piece.

A late caution with 16 to go, after Anthony Alfredo, Parker Retzlaff, and Josh Williams crashed on the backstretch, allowed Creed to come down pit lane with most of the leaders for fresh tires in an effort to charge back through traffic in the waning moments.

Creed lined up 12th after the choose for the final restart and roared forward, gaining five spots in less than two laps before settling into seventh and stalking both Jesse Love and A.J. Allmendinger.

The Alpine, Calif., native’s final pass of the day came entering turn three with four to go, when he used a draft from van Gisbergen to get around the outside of Allmendinger for position.

That put Creed fifth in the final results, his ninth top-five finish of the Xfinity Series season and a solid result after a blown engine in practice forced him to a backup motor for the 100-lap race.

“The car honestly drove a little too good, I think, and our backup motor maybe didn’t have as much speed down the straightaways as we’d hoped,” Creed explained. “But a good call by my crew chief, Sam McAuley, to get tires there late … and then picked the right lane that rolled well. Just having tires against some of the cars at the end meant something. I was able to get in line and go forward there at the end, which was great as we were battling all day.

“We were just slow, unfortunately. The car handled well all day, but it was just a little too slow all day.”

With Saturday’s race utilizing the low-horsepower, high-downforce package similar to what’s found in the superspeedway drafting races, Creed tipped that being in traffic made for a tough afternoon.

“Yeah, dirty air was not fun, especially when you were two or three-wide. Just tried to manage that and obviously, we saw a few wrecks there,” he said. “Yeah, just put ourselves in position for another top-five run, which is great, but I want to go lead laps and win races … so we have to find a little bit [more pace].

“It’s great to have the consistency we’ve had the last [eight] weeks leading up to the playoffs, so that’s good.”

Creed has five top-five finishes in the last seven races, including two runner-ups, which has him eighth in the regular season standings and 10th on the provisional playoff grid with six races left before the points reset.

The 26-year-old will get three weeks to breathe as part of the Olympic break, allowing him to reload before the Xfinity Series returns to action at Michigan Int’l Speedway.

“Except for Nashville [and Chicago] we’ve had five top fives in a row, so it feels good to build that momentum, and now we’ll get ready to hopefully have a strong last stretch before the playoffs,” Creed concluded.

Broadcast coverage of the upcoming Cabo Wabo 250 is slated for Saturday, Aug. 17 at 3:30 p.m. ET, live on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.