DARLINGTON, S.C- We’ve heard the story time and time again. On Saturday (Aug. 31) at Darlington Raceway, we got another edition of the one that got away from Sheldon Creed.
Creed had another fantastic run going in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Darlington, leading laps and running top-five all day long.
After teammate Christopher Bell had a slight run-in trying to lap the No. 07 of Greg Van Alst, Creed snuck by for the lead late in stage two, picking up the stage win and 10 playoff points.
At that point, the question became: Was today the day Creed finally scored his first series win?
As the race wound down, it seemed as though Bell had the better car, as he at one point, held more than a three-second lead over Creed and the rest of the field. Running second, Creed sat in line for his 12th career runner-up result in the Xfinity Series.
In the closing laps, Creed began to run down Bell, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, inching ever closer as the two worked lapped traffic, all while managing tire wear late in the run.
After running down the No. 20 of Bell, Creed moved to the inside entering turn one, ever so slightly moving Bell up the track. The nudge got Bell out of shape, and the Creed’s No. 18 stormed by, beginning to drive away.
It all got turned upside down when AJ Allmendinger made contact with Cole Custer, cutting down the right front on Allmendinger’s No. 16 and bringing out the caution with just three laps to go.
With a set of tires in the pits, Creed entered pit road the leader. When he left pit road,, he was third in line for the overtime restart.
Creed chose the top and lined up fourth for the restart and settled for third at the race’s end. Creed spoke about the pit road misfortune post-race.
“I was optimistic at first,” Creed said. “My pit crew had been really good all day. I figured we would come in first and leave first. I needed to at least probably be on the front row for a green-white-checkered like that. Just did my best with restarting fourth like that.”
“I don’t know. I’m obviously really bummed because today was our day, and I felt like I put in one of my best performances. To have a caution like that ruin it sucks.”
For a moment, it seemed like there was light at the end of the tunnel for Creed. Race leader Bell was sideways off of turn two, sliding down into Custer on the restart. Bell…
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