No. 2 gets playoff win No. 2, Nemechek advances
Sheldon Creed earned his third win of the 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season in Sunday’s In It to Win It 200 at Darlington Raceway
Creed bested John Hunter Nemechek by 0.531 seconds after leading three times for 104 of 147 laps, including the final 80 laps.
It was Creed’s second consecutive NCWTS win and the first time since Brett Moffitt in 2019 where an NCWTS driver won two consecutive races to start the playoffs. Creed also won Stage 2.
Nemechek finished second and secured a spot in the Round of 8 – beginning September 24 at Las Vegas – with one race left in the Round of 10. Nemechek led 39 laps and won Stage 1.
Friesen contested Nemechek’s second-place run but fell short and finished third. Friesen had newer tires than Nemechek and pulled alongside him a couple of times but failed to complete the pass.
Friesen is currently fourth in points, 33 points ahead of Zane Smith, the first driver below the cutline.
The Top 10 finishers are as follows: Sheldon Creed, John Hunter Nemechek, Stewart Friesen, Todd Gilliland, Parker Kligerman, Ben Rhodes, Chandler Smith, Johnny Sauter, Zane Smith, Matt Crafton.
Playoff drivers Carson Hocevar, Austin Hill and Ben Rhodes finished 11th, 12th and 34th, respectively.
Rhodes finished 34th, seven laps down, after getting into a Lap 67 crash in turn four that also involved Jack Wood and Kris Wright. Rhodes earned one stage point, from finishing tenth in Stage 1.
There were eight cautions for 35 laps and four lead changes among three drivers in Sunday’s race.
The next race for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is the September 16 UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway (9 p.m. ET; TV: FS1; Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The defending race winner is Sam Mayer who in his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start. SRX Stafford winner and six-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby will race the winning No. 24 GMS Racing Chevrolet Silverado in next Thursday’s UNOH 200 at Bristol.
SOURCES:
NASCAR
Racing-Reference.Info
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com