Creed Snags Sixth-Place Finish Amid ‘Dega Chaos
Sheldon Creed in action at Talladega Superspeedway. (David Rosenblum/LAT for Toyota Racing photo)
TALLADEGA, Ala. – A mile of good fortune on the final lap of Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 allowed Sheldon Creed to escape Talladega Superspeedway with a sixth-place finish.
Working through the chaotic lead pack through the tri-oval, Creed flared out to the extreme high lane and used a push from defending NASCAR Xfinity Seres champion Cole Custer to navigate through several rows of four-wide racing in the final 200 yards.
It marked Creed’s best finish in more than a month, since he finished third at Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway back in March, and came as a needed boon for the Alpine, Calif., native.
Creed’s strong run almost didn’t happen, as he got turned around in the chain-reaction crash during the first overtime attempt after contact from behind sent him into Josh Williams and eventually sideways.
He rallied, however, despite restarting outside the top 10 when the race resumed for its final two-lap dash.
“The 48 (Parker Kligerman) ran out of fuel right when we got to the line,” Creed recalled when asked about the penultimate green flag. “I checked up a little bit for the 2 (eventual winner Jesse Love) just to push him through there. I don’t know what happened, but we all stacked up and it turned me. I had to come to pit road and get tires, and I think I restarted 16th or 17th.
“I was 13th entering turn three, so to finish sixth after the day we had with our GR Supra … I’ll take that all day.”
With his fifth top-10 finish of the season, Creed was able to maintain 10th place in the regular season point standings, eight points ahead of the playoff cut line through nine races.
Saturday marked Creed’s 34th career top-10 finish in his 79th Xfinity Series start, as well as his second straight top-six finish at the 2.66-mile Talladega oval.
Creed and the rest of the Xfinity Series field will return to action in a week’s time at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway for the running of the BetRivers 200.
Race coverage airs Saturday, April 27 at 1:30 p.m. ET live on FS1, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
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