Following the tremendous amount of success he enjoyed in the Craftsman Truck Series, many were eager to see what Sheldon Creed could do in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition.
After all, the X Games gold medalist amassed eight wins and a championship over the 2020 and 2021 Truck seasons before moving up to NXS last year.
To add to the hype, Creed stepped into Richard Childress Racing’s No. 2 car, which has been one of the most dominant cars in Xfinity for more than two decades. Of RCR’s five NXS championships, three of them have come from the No. 2 team, with Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Tyler Reddick all claiming titles. 31 of the team’s 91 Xfinity wins came via the No. 2 car.
But Creed largely underwhelmed in his first year in NXS. He missed the playoffs and only posted four top fives and 13 top 10s. His RCR teammate Austin Hill, meanwhile, had two wins, 11 top fives and 21 top 10s while finishing sixth in points.
“I had to kind of step up my program a little bit,” Creed told Frontstretch. “I feel like, [in] Trucks, I got a good hold of it and I feel like my race craft was pretty decent and we were just really fast all the time. So that makes things a lot easier. And then we came to Xfinity, and everyone’s a lot smarter and the race is different, the car is different.
“I just had to do better with my homework at home, and I come to the track more prepared and I think I’ve stepped that up this year, and that’s kind of shown a little bit.”
Nine races into 2023, Creed has been much more competitive. He already has half the top fives he had last year, including a runner-up this past weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. He’s on pace to score more top 10s and lead more laps, and his average finishing position is nearly three positions higher.
“Yeah, we’re certainly a lot faster,” Creed said. “I think the new rear rules package has helped us, brought us closer to the game. A lot less rear grip in the cars, they’re a little more difficult to drive.”
Less grip and more difficult to drive are features that fall right into the wheelhouse of a driver who was a two-time champion in Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Trucks.
“[…] I think we’re off to a decent start,” Creed said. “I didn’t have a great Daytona, got turned in stage 2. Had a really good car at Fontana [Auto Club Speedway], was down a set of tires at the…
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