When the checkered flag finally waved after the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at EchoPark Speedway on Saturday, February 21, it was Sheldon Creed surviving to take his first series victory. This comes on the heels of having 15 runner-up finishes in his career.
The final run for the trophy was set up by a 4:28 minute red flag to clean up debris from a Lap 152 caution. When the race restarted with six laps remaining, the O’Reilly Series drivers went two and three wide around the 1.5-mile track dicing for positions.
Following the No. 00 Chevrolet of Creed to the finish was Parker Retzlaff for his career-best finish of second, Nick Sanchez was third, Corey Day fourth and Jesse Love was fifth.
This was Creed’s first series win in 138 starts, he led 17 laps. There were 24 lead changes, which was a race record.
NASCAR’s Sheldon Creed Finally Wins O’Reilly Series Race
With two laps to go in the 163-lap race, Creed was running third behind Cup Series regular Ross Chastain in the No. 32 Chevrolet. Leading the field was Creed’s former Richard Childress Racing teammate of Austin Hill in the No. 21 Chevrolet.
After the white flag waved, Creed got into the back of Chastain and pushed him into the back of Hill exiting Turn 2. As they raced down the backstretch, the tap from Chastain caused Hill to slightly spin towards the infield, but he was able to save it and continue on.
This opened the door for the HAAS Factory Team driver of Creed to take the lead, and victory.
“Yeah, I’ve been a loser the past few years and I just kept showing up,” Creed said. “This is not how you draw it up when you win a Truck Series championship (2020) and winning races. This is incredible.
“It’s not how I drew it up. I don’t know if one win will rebound my career, but maybe if I win a few this year it will. I want to thank my past teams of RCR and (Joe) Gibbs, they gave me great opportunities.
“I’m probably going to drink a ton of Coors Lights tonight.”
Austin Hill Had a Good Time
For Hill, despite being bumped for the lead on the final lap, he realized what took place and why he ended up in 12th place. He’s a five-time winner at EchoPark Speedway.
“We really had a fast Chevrolet all day,” Hill said afterwards. “Looking back on that, there’s a couple of things I could have done differently. I might have got a little too far out coming off Turn 2.
“What about that save, that save was insane. End of the race, you have to throw the block and the No. 32 (Chastain) drove through me. He has nothing to lose; he’s not racing for points…that’s Ross for you. We were both going for the win. I was dead sideways there and I don’t know how I saved it.
“That was a lot of fun, I had a blast tonight. It just wasn’t meant to be, Atlanta has been good to us.”
Massive Multi-car Crash Takes Place with 22 Laps to Go
With just 22 laps remaining in the race, a multi-car crash began as cars were coursing through Turn 1. Sammy Smith, who just took advantage of the free pass after being involved in a crash earlier, got a flat tire on his No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet while running seventh.
As he spun in close racing conditions, Smith collected Ryan Ellis, William Sawalich, Gio Ruggiero, Nick Leitz, Brennan Poole, Lavar Scott, Patrick Staropoli, Taylor Gray and Mason Maggio.
NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain was leading at the time as early race leaders Hill and RCR teammate Love followed.
Next up for the O’Reilly Series is Circuit of America’s road course on Saturday, Feb. 28.
NASCAR’s Sheldon Creed Survives Atlanta Mayhem to Finally Win First O’Reilly Series Race