Sheldon Creed is apparently treating NASCAR’s new-old Chase format as a personal suggestion rather than a warning.
Two races into the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase, Creed has already won twice.
After opening the Chase with a victory at Darlington Raceway, Creed finished second last week at World Wide Technology Raceway. Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, he went back to winning, taking the Food City 300 in overtime and putting himself firmly at the front of the championship conversation.
Not that Creed is ready to start printing championship T-shirts.
“I don’t know if it makes us the title favorite,” Creed said. “A long way to go, six to go. And yeah, I thought we were going to just lose some points tonight, but I think winning kind of helps us salvage that a bit.”
That is probably the sensible answer.
The scoreboard, however, is considerably less diplomatic.
Creed now leads Justin Allgaier by 11 points with six races remaining in the Chase. And while Allgaier finished fourth Friday night, Creed’s second Chase victory means the No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet has opened the title fight with exactly the sort of momentum drivers dream about and crew chiefs pretend not to notice.
“If not, we’re at least talked about now,” Creed said. “So just hats off to everyone on this car. They’ve been working so hard back at the shop and the road crew and just everyone. It’s just, it’s really a team effort to get out here and do this.”
Getting it done at Bristol required a little bit of help from the universe, too.
Carson Kvapil appeared to have the race under control for much of the evening. The JR Motorsports Chevrolet led a race-high 156 laps and won Stage 2, only to have a brake problem with fewer than 50 laps remaining turn what looked like a potential victory into a trip down pit road under green.
Kvapil finished 24th, four laps down.
Then came the sort of Bristol ending that makes perfectly good race cars look like participants in a demolition derby with a points system.
Justin Allgaier, Jesse Love and Taylor Gray were battling for the lead in the closing laps when contact between the cars shuffled the running order. Creed, who had taken fresh tires, suddenly found himself in position to capitalize.
It was less about dominating Bristol than surviving it.
Creed had struggled with the balance of his Chevrolet all night, which made his late-race charge even more impressive.
“Just great call by my crew chief and engineer there to put tires on and great pit stop by my guys to get me out first to be the first one on tires,” Creed said. “And to be honest, it wasn’t really good all night. Struggled with the balance of our Chevrolet.”
Fresh rubber turned out to be rather useful.
When the field lined up for overtime, Creed restarted alongside William Sawalich and quickly made his move. The bottom lane had not exactly been the express lane on restarts all night, but Creed had something the others didn’t.
Grip.
“I tried to time the 18 well,” Creed said. “Just me being on a lot newer tire, and it was easier for me to get going. And I got clear.”
Sawalich held on for second, with Brent Crews third, Allgaier fourth and Corey Day fifth. Taylor Gray finished sixth, followed by Sam Mayer, Parker Retzlaff, Dean Thompson and Sammy Smith.
For Allgaier, fourth place represented both a solid points haul and another Bristol race that got away when victory was within reach.
He was particularly unhappy with the contact involving Love whom he confronted on pit road post-race for a short and apparently civil conversation. So what was said?
“Just questioning why,” Allgaier said. “I don’t know. Really disappointed in. I follow where he’s played all night and it wasn’t. He didn’t even try to make the corner.”
The frustration was understandable. Allgaier said the car was strong enough to win, even after suffering damage earlier in the race.
“The race car that we had tonight was so good,” he said. “And obviously Carson was up front there. Just disappointed in coming out of here fourth and still a good points night.”
Good points nights, unfortunately, are not quite as satisfying when another driver is collecting trophies.
Allgaier now trails Creed by 11 points, while Crews’ third-place finish keeps him within the championship mix.
And Creed? He gets to leave Bristol with another trophy, another Chase victory and six races still standing between him and the championship.
“I’d like to think we’re a favorite,” Creed said. “If not, we’re at least talked about now.”
At the moment, that is becoming increasingly difficult to argue with.
RACE RESULTS
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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