TALLADEGA, Ala. — This oh-so-close finish went down a little easier for Sheldon Creed.
After a frantic home stretch and two heavy crashes in the last lap of Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series tilt, Creed came out on the other side with a mostly damage-free car and a six-figure check to show for it. The 28-year-old Haas Factory Team driver steered clear of the turmoil for his eighth consecutive top-10 result, cashing in the series’ $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus for the second straight week as the highest eligible finisher at Talladega Superspeedway.
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Finishing second has become a well-documented pattern for Creed, who was a runner-up 15 times before finally becoming an O’Reilly Series winner this February in Atlanta. The outcome of Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 was his second consecutive podium result — one that dropped him from an unofficial second-place finish to third after a post-race scoring review, by just 0.001 seconds behind runner-up Brent Crews and only 0.155 behind first-time winner Corey Day — but Creed was counting it as a virtual victory at one of the circuit’s most rigorous tracks.
“I don’t even care. $100,000? Second? I won, so I don’t even care,” Creed said, the ceremonial check still resting on the windshield of his No. 00 Chevrolet. “We’ve been really consistent and getting bonuses for the guys in the shop and yeah, I think all that matters more to me. Obviously, I want to win more and capitalize while our team is doing really good and building really fast race cars, but at the same time, just happy with our consistency.”
Creed led five times for seven laps in Saturday’s 300-miler, and he figured even more prominently among the contenders when he vaulted past a big block from pole-starter Jesse Love with a bold high-side move with six laps remaining. Three laps later, Day’s No. 17 Chevy challenged Creed on the inside and he was unable to counter his progress.
Creed was actually shown as the leader at the white flag, but his grip on the top spot was a loose one as his Haas Factory teammate Sam Mayer rode low, with Day alongside in the middle of a three-wide fight. Mayer crashed on the backstretch, and once Creed gave the top lane to Jeb Burton with a line of momentum, his victory hopes dwindled. Bedlam involving Burton and a host of others behind him drew a race-ending, field-freezing yellow flag with Day up front.
“I think those two mistakes there, and it’s hard, right, when you’re in those situations what lanes to block,” Creed said. “There’s runs coming from all of them at different times, so you block one and then you have to look in the mirror and block the next. Yeah, I just got myself behind there.”
Creed had positioned himself well at the end. Getting there, however, was an adventure to watch for his crew chief, veteran Jonathan Toney.
“This was an eventful race, for sure,” said Toney, in his fourth year with the No. 00 team and his second season with Creed. “From the beginning, from the drop of the green flag, it seemed like they wanted to be three-wide. The whole race seemed like we were in the middle three-wide about the majority of the time. So, yeah, I think everybody works real hard to capitalize on these races, and this is an opportunity for a lot of people to win a race, because a lot of the unpredictability in it. So yeah, that brings out some aggression and some late blocks and some bold moves to try to win. But everybody, when we came down here, everybody wanted to win the race, so that’s what you get when that happens.”
Creed also finished third at each stage, helping him accumulate a 50-point payday — second only to Day’s 55-point haul for winning. Post-race, he acknowledged the peerless pace of standings leader Justin Allgaier, who finished 23rd Saturday to snap his own seven-race streak of top fives.
MORE: O’Reilly Series standings | Talladega weekend schedule
Performances like Saturday’s have helped Creed’s efforts to chip away at Allgaier’s sizable advantage — which now sits at a still-grand 105 points. But it’s also helped re-establish the championship-caliber credentials of the No. 00 team, which won the series championship with Cole Custer in 2023.
“When he won, I think it absolutely was, and last year was a building year for us, and I think, yeah, now we’re back to that,” Creed said. “I think we’re showing we can run up front every week and finish good every week, and that’s what it’s going to take with this new format is just being able to run top five all day, every weekend you show up.”
The completion of Saturday’s race marks one-third of the way home for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series as the racing calendar steams ahead toward May. Cracking the win column two months ago was a release for Creed & Co., and the team has finished no worse than 11th since.
Toney says the whole group is enjoying the ride.
“Man, we’ve just gelled so much and we’re having so much fun,” Toney said. “You know, Sheldon, he’s such a good, good person, and a good guy to be around, and he’s just super excited when he comes to the race track now, and that just motivates all of us. The pit crew, they keep performing and getting better and better each week. We keep building these back at the shop, and everybody there building good, fast race cars. So yeah, this is a lot of fun to be a part of right now.”