Creed On Darlington Top 10: ‘That Was What We Had’

Sheldon Creed in action at Darlington Raceway. (Jacob Seelman/Race Face Digital photo)

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Sheldon Creed’s 10th-place finish in Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts/VFW-Help a Hero 200 was about as quiet a top-10 run as it’s possible to have at Darlington Raceway.

Driving the No. 00 Road Ranger Ford Mustang, Creed qualified 10th at the Track Too Tough to Tame and averaged running right around that position all afternoon.

He got as high as fifth at one point and spent nearly 95 percent of the race inside the top 15, but Creed struggled to find the edge to his car that he needed to carve his way further forward in traffic.

Appropriately, both of Creed’s stage finishes were also 10th before he ended the day there as well.

“That was what we had,” Creed said afterward. “I don’t completely know how to feel about it because I thought we were going to be a lot better than we were, to be honest. The first run, I was a bit tight but swung really loose by the end of it … and when we tried to tighten it (back) up we went too far that direction. After that we were trying to free ourselves up for the rest of the day.

“When we did that toward the end, it unhooked the back of the car and made the rear (end) really loose, but even that didn’t help us turn really well,” he continued. “Just a tough balance. It’s so hard to fix both (handling conditions) at this racetrack. And then to add to all that, whatever lane I picked (on restarts) always seemed to stack (up) off of (turn) two or into (turn) one … and that just makes it harder to work your way forward when you’re fighting things every step of the way.

“We fought all day and ended up 10th across the board. It’s crazy. Your hardest days in this sport are the eighth-to-15th place days, and this was one of those for us.”

Sheldon Creed (Jacob Seelman/Race Face Digital photo)

Despite the general struggle, Saturday was still Creed’s fifth top 10 in eight NASCAR Xfinity Series races this season, and his average finish of 11.5 is on pace early to equal or exceed his mark from last year’s full 33-race campaign.

Creed sits fourth in the regular season standings, 95 points back of series leader and defending champion Justin Allgaier but just 24 behind Haas Factory Team stablemate Sam Mayer for the runner-up ranking.

It’s a swath of early consistency that has Creed believing that he and crew chief Jonathan Toney are “close to where we need to be” to be able to capitalize on their strongest days and get to victory lane.

“Overall, I feel like things have been really good and we’re in a good place,” Creed noted. “We’ve got speed; I think we just need to work on (getting more) turn in our race cars … or my race cars, at least, to get things where I need them week to week.

“There are a few things, a few growing pains still to work out … but we have the (raw) pace. Things look promising.”

Creed is among the four Xfinity Series regulars eligible to race for a $100,000 bonus during the third of four Dash 4 Cash races at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, the next stop on the calendar.

Broadcast coverage of the SciAps 300 at the high-banked concrete half mile is slated for Saturday, April 12 at 5 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.