Sheldon Creed settles for Sonoma second-place finish

For the ninth time in his NASCAR Xfinity Series career, Sheldon Creed finished runner-up.

Creed finished second to Shane Van Gisbergen at Sonoma Raceway Saturday in the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200 after starting ninth and an unscheduled pit stop in Stage 1.

“I guess I just had a silly set of tires that blistered – had an unscheduled stop there and had really good adjustments,” Creed said. “I knew we were really good the second half of stage two, and stage three after that first caution came out. Just knew I had a really fast car after the first few laps.”

On the final restart of the race with 11 laps to go, Creed said he wished he could have started alongside Van Gisbergen instead of trying to chase him down.

Later into the run, Creed wheel-hopped into A.J. Allmendinger in Turn 7, turning the No. 16 while Creed continued racing inside the Top-5.

“I know an apology doesn’t do much, but that is not what you want to do – wheel hop into your competitors and take them out and ruin their day,” Creed said.

“We will move on to Iowa next week and keep trucking along.”

The result was Creed’s second runner-up showing this year.

Creed is ranked eighth in points with a 76-point cushion (over one full race) over the cutline (13th-place Ryan Sieg).

The regular season is more than halfway done, with 12 races remaining before the playoffs begin at Kansas Speedway in September.