Sheldon Creed captures second career O’Reilly win at Darlington

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Shelden Creed captures his second career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win in the Fleetio 200 from Darlington Raceway.

Creed opens up the Chase with his second win of the season with his first non-superspeedway win.

The Haas Factory Team driver ualified outside the top ten but that did not stop him from finding the front by the end of the second stage.

In the final stage, his pit crew delivered the money stop for Creed. He jumped from around third place to first for the final restart of the event with 49 laps remaining.

It took the former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champ 138 races to claim his maidan series victory. Tonight, it only took him an additional 23 to find win number two.

The timing couldn’t have been better for him. The victory vaulted him to second in the Chase and only seven points outside of Justin Allgaier for the lead with eight races remaning.

The Top Ten

Corey Day battled all night. Whether it was William Sawalich, A three-wide dive into turn three, or the handling of his Hendrick Motorsports No. 17 he dealt with the adversity for a runners-up finish.

Brent Crews barely missed the drivers Chase but came into Darlington for the very first time in his career in the owner’s Chase. He matched the winning strategy and came away with a solid third place.

Sammy Smith finished in the same position as he did in the second stage, fourth. Then, Austin Hill rounded out a solid top five from fifth.

Anthony Alfredo had the best night outside of the Chase in his sixth place finish. After qualifying just outside of the top ten, Alfredo ran inside it for nearly the whole race. He collected stage points in the first stage and stayed out to win the second stage.

Taylor Gray and Sam Mayer each qualified and finished inside the top ten from seventh and eighth.

Then Jeremy Clements delivered his first non-superspeedway top ten since Texas this past spring from ninth.

Finally, Brandon Jones legged out another Darlington top ten from tenth.

Notable Results

For the Fleetio 200, it’s the few drivers not yet mentioned that should of have big nights.

Carson Kvapil set himself on pole for the first time in his O’Reilly Series career. He led 20 laps and tied for the most amount of stage points with 15. But his tire strategy failed and he faded for a 12th-placed finish.

Kvapil also redeemed himself with the added fastest lap point too but his two other teammates were not so fortunate tonight,

Justin Allgaier came to South Carolina looking for another Darlington win and for most of the night it looked to be just that. He won the opening stage but the tire strategy his team gambled on failed to work like Kvapil’s. The heavy favorite slipped to 17th for a disappointing start to the Chase.

The final other title-eligible drivers Parker Retzlaff and Rajah Caruth finished 21st and 26th, respectively.

It was a particularly eventful night for Caruth, who is competing for his first series championship. He rallied from being two laps down early in the race and was running well inside the top-10 with 45 laps remaining. But the same fuel pick-up issue that set him back early in the race reappeared with seven laps remaining and forced him to pit the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in those closing laps.

Below are the full results from the Fleetio 200 at Darlington Raceway.

Full Results

Chase Standings