SONOMA, Calif. — Sheldon Creed’s race in the Zip Buy Now, Save Later 250 at Sonoma Raceway ended to a familiar tune — second.
For the ninth time in his NASCAR Xfinity Series career, Creed recorded a runner-up – this time to Shane van Gisbergen, who won for the second consecutive week. His nine second-place finishes only trail Daniel Hemric and Dale Jarrett (10 each) for the most without scoring a victory.
And yes, Creed’s keeping track.
“I don’t even know how many second places that is — number nine or something,” Creed said after the race.
An off-road racer at heart, some of his near triumphs have come at road courses in the past. At Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International last summer, Creed led at one point in NASCAR Overtime after contact between rivals Sam Mayer and Ty Gibbs out front. Mayer ultimately came back to win while Creed took second after struggling to get through oil on the racing surface.
He scored three consecutive runners-up starting at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway last fall — at the peak of his fallout with Richard Childress Racing — to his Joe Gibbs Racing debut at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway this year.
But at Sonoma on Saturday, Creed fought an early uphill battle.
Just 14 laps in, Creed made an unscheduled pit stop for a vibration – multiple laps before some of the leaders came for service before the end of Stage One. That put the Alpine native on a slightly different strategy, but got up to fourth at the end of Stage Two for seven points.
On a restart with 11 to go, Creed had an opportunity to shoot for the win against van Gisbergen and former RCR counterpart Austin Hill. Battling A.J. Allmendinger for fourth, Creed drove too deep into turn seven and wheel-hopped, sending Allmendinger around.
The slowdown was enough to put Creed behind to where he could never chase down van Gisbergen. But he still didn’t know if he could’ve gotten there anyway.
“I knew we were really good the second half of stage two, and stage three after that first caution came out,” Creed said. “I don’t want to say that we need more laps, because I know (van Gisbergen) probably wasn’t going his hardest at the end, but I just wish maybe I could have started on the front row with him and wasn’t part of the chaos there.
“I wheel-hopped into (Allmendinger) — so I know an apology doesn’t do much, but that is not what you want to do — wheel hop into your competitors and take them out and ruin their day.”
Creed sits eighth in points through 14 races, recording his first top-five since Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway at the end of April.