Creed Takes Second O'Reilly Series Win In Chase Opener At Darlington

Sheldon Creed went winless through his first four full-time seasons in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. After a win in Saturday night's Fleetio 200 at Darlington Raceway, Creed now has two wins on the season, and the latest triumph came at a particularly convenient time for the driver, as the race at Darlington kicked off the nine-race Chase for the championship.

Creed took the lead in the race in a race off pit road on Lap 94. After he claimed the lead of the race, Creed never looked back as he led the final 53 laps of the event, and he pulled away to win the race by a margin of 2.961 seconds over Corey Day, the Hendrick Motorsports developmental driver.

While the racer was elated to finally break through to victory lane at EchoPark Speedway back in February, he was over the moon with the fact that he had captured a win at Darlington Raceway, a track where he had seen certain victory slip through his fingers many times before.

"Oh, this is everything to me. I've been so close here so many times, and yeah, if I could pick a place on the schedule to get a win, this is it," Creed said in his victory interview on The CW.

He ended up in victory lane, but it took some hard work by his No. 00 Haas Factory Team to get there, as their car was not very good early in the race.

"To be honest, wasn't real happy with the car that first run. And yeah, we just worked on it all night," Creed explained. "[Crew chief Jonathan Toney] and the boys just gave me kind of what I needed there at the end, and I was able to just get away."

With the win, Creed's second in his 161-race NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series career, the driver was able to vault himself to second in the Chase Grid, and he now sits just seven points behind Justin Allgaier, the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

Day, the runner-up finisher, was able to rebound from damage he sustained in an incident with William Sawalich on Lap 68 to secure the solid finish. As a result, Day improved his Chase rank from seventh to fifth, and he is now 46 points behind Allgaier.

Brent Crews, who is battling for the Owner's Championship in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, finished third ahead of Sammy Smith and Austin Hill.

Anthony Alfredo, who surprised with a Stage 2 win, came home in sixth, while Taylor Gray, Sam Mayer, Jeremy Clements, and Brandon Jones rounded out the top-10 finishers.

Carson Kvapil (12th) and Justin Allgaier (17th) were the dominant cars for the majority of the race, but faded as their cars went away on older tires at the end of the race.

Here is the Chase Grid with eight races remaining in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series championship fight:

1. Justin Allgaier, 2,135 points
2. Sheldon Creed, -7
3. Carson Kvapil, -19
4. Austin Hill, -36
5. Corey Day, -46
6. Jesse Love, -48
7. Sammy Smith, -55
8. Brandon Jones, -58
9. Sam Mayer, -66
10. Parker Retzlaff, -78
11. Taylor Gray, -79
12. Rajah Caruth, -104

Next up for the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series is the Nu Way 225 at World Wide Technology Raceway on Saturday, September 12. That race will be televised on The CW with coverage set to kick off at 7:30 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the event.

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