The sun was shining Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway but gray skies seemed to gather around Sheldon Creed's outlook on the day's race.
LAS VEGAS -- The sun was shining Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway but gray skies seemed to gather around Sheldon Creed's outlook on the day's race.
Creed finished third Saturday, marking his second top-five finish in the three races since his breakthrough first win in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.
When asked about if the win makes it easier to take a third-place finish and a day where he didn't win, Creed had a pointed response.
"Yea, then I spin the 54 and that kind of kills my mood on the day because I don't like being that guy," Creed said.
On lap 149, Creed's No. 00 Chevrolet was battling Taylor Gray's No. 54 Toyota for a position inside the top-five. After Gray blocked Creed's run, Creed pushed Gray into the corner, causing him to spin out and crash.
"Just had a lot of laps and ran into the back of him. That was on me. That was bad," Creed said.
Gray finished 37th. As a result, Gray sits 12th in points with just a six-point cushion for the Chase, hanging on by the skin of his teeth after losing valuable points in the crash.
"He's one of the ones I like more in the garage so that makes it worse," Creed said about Gray.
Creed sits fourth in points, 49 behind the leader but now with an 84-point cushion for his Chase spot. His focus is on the next few weeks, which he said he will enjoy, but not before apologizing to Gray.
"That's all on me. I'll probably call him tomorrow when I get up and, uh, share my condolences. In my opinion, he owes me one whenever he chooses to return it. We'll talk about it and move forward," Creed said.
Next for the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series is Darlington Raceway. Creed has five top-10 finishes in seven NOAPS starts there, including two top-five finishes that saw him come very close to victory lane.
In September of 2022, Creed battled Kyle Larson and Noah Gragson in an all-time NOAPS finish that saw him pull a proto-Hail Melon that nearly got him the win. Ultimately, he finished second after leading 47 laps.
Two years later, Creed was leading and pulling away with six laps to go when a caution flew and shifted control of the race to Christopher Bell. Creed finished third that day.
"It's just hard, slick, it wears tires out. It's just super technical and it's hard and it makes it so much fun, as weird or crazy as that sounds," Creed said.