Ryan Sieg was 11 seconds behind the battle for the win in Saturday’s (Sept. 3) NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway.
If he were sitting in the stands, there would have been no bigger cheerleader for Kyle Larson or Noah Gragson as the pair dueled with winless Sheldon Creed.
The finish to the Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 was one of the best finishes of the 2022 NASCAR season and one of the best ever at Darlington. Three different agendas and car speeds made the finish an edge-of-your-seat watch.
Larson worked methodically to reel in Creed and Gragson and took second place from Gragson when the pair were loose and touched ever so slightly off the exit of turn two with four laps to go.
Larson cut Creed a break by lifting with three laps to go when it was clear he may bump or wreck him. Creed was struggling off turn four, and Larson led with one lap to go, but the pair entered turn one side-by-side. Lots of contact was made, and Creed even smacked the outside wall.
Flat tires struck as Creed and Larson entered turn three, and Gragson hit the wall, but exiting turn four, Gragson passed Creed for the lead and won.
And RSS Racing let out a collective sigh of relief.
The previous eight races for Creed and Sieg have been vastly different compared to the first 16 races of the season. Gragson winning Saturday’s race allowed Sieg to relax, even if just for a minute, and kept his playoff hopes alive one week longer.
Sieg had a near-dream first 16 races of 2022 for a midfield team and arguably was in a separate midfield class of his own, scoring nine top 10s and one top five. Creed, however, only scored six top 10s and didn’t have even a single top five. Creed also had twice as many DNFs as Sieg, with six. In the most recent eight races, the fortunes of these two drivers have flipped dramatically.
Creed has surged in July and August, capturing four top 10s and three top fives, with only two finishes outside the top 12 since Road America. Sieg, however, has failed to finish better than 13th in the same timeframe. But the stat to zero in on is that Creed’s deficit to 12th place in the Xfinity Series standings has fallen from 98 points to 16.
Sixteen points separate Creed from making the Xfinity Series playoffs in 2022 and knocking Sieg out.
It would have been difficult to believe that a driver among the “Power 12” teams would miss the playoffs two months ago. As the weeks have passed, all Xfinity midfield teams have struggled,…
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