Creed Comes Up Oh-So-Close Again At Martinsville

Sheldon Creed (00) battles Daniel Dye at Martinsville Speedway. (Jacob Seelman/Race Face Digital photo)

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – For the third time in three years, Sheldon Creed saw a shot to win a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway fall just short of victory lane.

Creed came through a wild overtime finish in Saturday’s Marine Corps 250 to finish second at the half-mile ‘paper clip’, his third runner-up result in seven career Xfinity Series starts at Martinsville.

How it happened might have been the most interesting part of the story, as Creed took the white flag fifth before Sammy Smith drove deep into turn three on the final lap to get to the leading Toyota of Taylor Gray.

The lead duo made contact and Gray spun, while Smith lost momentum before cars began bouncing off one another at the front of the field in the final corner.

Creed kept his No. 00 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Ford Mustang pressed against the inside curb and squeaked through a clean lane behind the Chevrolet of Austin Hill, just before the field began crashing behind the pair with the checkered flag in sight.

Though he didn’t have enough forward drive down the straightaway to challenge Hill for the victory, Creed was just .190 seconds behind in scoring his best finish of the season thus far.

“I actually thought the race was relatively clean for the first 140 or so laps, and I thought that we were all pretty respectful to one another once I got to the top five, but here … you just know that eventually it’s going to get messy,” Creed noted. “When the 8 (Smith) pushed the 54 (Gray) so deep on the restart before the last one, I knew the 54 would get him back. I’d have loved to have gotten in line where the 21 (of Hill) did, but the top didn’t roll at the end like I needed it to.

“We just got that upper groove a bit too clean before the final restart, and that made it a bit challenging, but it’s just typical Martinsville racing when it comes down to a green-white-checkered (finish) like that.”

Saturday marked Creed’s 14th career second-place finish in the Xfinity Series, extending his own record for the most all time without a victory, but this was a runner-up that Creed admitted afterward he “could take home and feel good about.”

“As messy as it was around us, both of us just crept around there on the bottom and ended up first and second,” Creed continued. “I’ll take it, honestly. After how far back we qualified, starting 18th and the fact we were probably going to run … sixth or so before all that, to end up second is great for how our weekend started.”

Though he didn’t earn any stage points, Creed did lead two laps at Martinsville and picked up one position to fourth in the regular season standings, 71 behind leader Justin Allgaier and 58 ahead of the playoff cut line after seven races.

The runner-up finish also kept Creed eligible for the Dash 4 Cash bonus program, which continues in two weeks at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, where he’ll try to bring home a $100,000 payday for his team.

Hill’s Martinsville win allowed him to take home the bonus money over the weekend.

Creed and the rest of the Xfinity Series field head next to Darlington (S.C.) Raceway for NASCAR’s annual throwback weekend, celebrating the history and heritage of the sport across more than 75 years.

Broadcast coverage of the Sport Clips Haircuts/VFW-Help A Hero 200 is slated for Saturday, April 5 at 3:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.