Creed Notches Crucial Top Five In Kansas Playoff Race

Sheldon Creed (00) races ahead of Taylor Gray at Kansas Speedway. (David Rosenblum/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series visit to Kansas Speedway gave Sheldon Creed two positives in his playoff pursuit: forward momentum and vital championship points.

Creed finished fifth in the Sunflower State, advancing from 10th on the Kansas Lottery 300 starting grid in a consistent performance with his No. 00 Ollie’s Ford Mustang for Haas Factory Team.

Though he just missed out on bonus points in stage one, Creed ranked ninth in the second stage to bank two additional points toward his Round of 12 total, setting himself up comfortably for the stretch run to the finish.

When the fourth and final caution flag waved with 44 laps left, after contact between Justin Bonsignore and Nick Sanchez sent Bonsignore crashing off turn two, Creed was running ninth with a “relatively stable” race car underneath him.

After a four-tire pit stop, Creed restarted on the inside of the fifth row and charged forward quickly, wrapping the inside white line around the 1.5-mile oval and climbing to fifth in the first lap after the restart.

Once he established that track position, Creed held it all the way to the finish, maintaining through the race-ending 38-lap run and earning his seventh top five of the season.

It wasn’t necessarily a flashy day, but Creed averaged a ninth-place running position across the 300 miles and posted the seventh best driver rating in the field at 101.1 out of a possible 150.

Altogether, it lifted the Alpine, Calif., native 12 points above the elimination line with only the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL remaining in the playoff Round of 12.

“We weren’t where we wanted to be early, but we just kept working on it all day,” Creed said after the race. “My crew made big swings, got us track position, and we were able to hold on and finish strong. I’m proud of the fight this team showed.”

Creed has now finished inside the top 10 in half of the 28 races completed thus far in the Xfinity Series season. He’s currently sixth in the standings, even with where he ended the 2024 season a year ago.

The Xfinity Series heads to the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL to complete the first round of the playoffs. Creed has three finishes of 12th or better on road courses this year, including a third-place run at the Chicago (Ill.) Street Course back in July.

One of Creed’s eight career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victories came turning both left and right, when he topped the Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway road course in August of 2020 on his way to the championship that year.

He’ll look to duplicate that kind of an effort in the Queen City, where a breakthrough Xfinity Series win would guarantee his place in the semifinal round of the playoffs and keep his pursuit of a second NASCAR championship alive and well.

Broadcast coverage of the Blue Cross NC 250 is slated for Saturday, Oct. 4 at 5 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.