Another week, another decent run by Sheldon Creed dashed by avoidable incidents in the closing laps. After climbing from his battered race car at the conclusion of Saturday’s Call811.com Before You Dig 250, Creed looked aghast and in utter disbelief over the lack of respect that he is continually shown in the closing laps of NASCAR Xfinity Series races.
“There’s just no respect at the end of these races,” Creed explained in disgust. “I don’t know what we got up to — sixth on the restart, and then I thought I was going to maintain. And then I would just start losing rear grip. All day long, I would lose it. I started falling back. [Daniel Hemric] got around me, and then [Derek Kraus] — the Kaulig cars have zero respect. None of them do.
“[Kraus] went three wide, shoved me and [Brett Moffitt] up the racetrack. They go by, and then comes [Chandler Smith] and [Ryan Truex], and [Smith] literally just bulldozes you out of the way. And then I just caught [Truex]’s left rear there on exit and spun because of it.”
Quite literally, if you attempted to tally the number of times in his brief NASCAR Xfinity Series career that Creed has had a solid run dashed by an incident in the closing laps, you would have to borrow someone else’s finger and toes to get the final answer. For Creed, it’s becoming draining.
“Yeah, it’s every week almost. I don’t know. I feel like we have really good weeks and they are confidence builders, and then there are other weeks that are like today,” Creed stated.
The thing that irks Creed more is the fact that he has truly taken a deep-dive on honing his personal race craft. He says he has become a lot more involved with the inner workings of his Chevrolet Camaro race cars, and he is trying to do everything he can to succeed.
“Yeah, there’s been things I’ve been working on lately. Trying to get better with notes, paying attention more, and just trying to be in the game more,” Creed said. “And I don’t know. I can’t — when the car drives the way it does, I can only do so much.”
And even if his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing machine was running on rails, it wouldn’t matter much if he still has people stepping over the line while battling him for positions. But Creed understands that there will be rivals in big-time motorsport. However, he didn’t expect he’d have to take shots from drivers that are essentially teammates to him.
But that’s what Creed says has become common practice as of late. Creed explains that what led to him crashing on the final lap of Saturday’s race at Martinsville was an overall lack of respect shown to him by the Kaulig Racing drivers, which drive Chevrolet Camaros that come from the Richard Childress Racing campus.
“I feel like when you show some respect when you’re driving up through there, and you’re not knocking them out of the way, maybe you would get a little back. But you see that with Chandler [Smith] all year,” Creed pointed. “I mean, he wrecked Kyle [Busch]. Just — I don’t know. The bad part of it is, they’re RCR race cars. They’re on our campus and they race us the worst.”
As for the reason why the Kaulig Racing teammates are like a thorn in his side?
“I don’t know why they do that. I don’t understand. Because they want to beat us because they’re in an RCR car,” Creed questioned. “I don’t know.”
Creed hopes to nip whatever is going on in the bud, as he plans to talk to Chandler Smith this week at the Richard Childress Racing post-Martinsville debrief meeting, which Kaulig Racing is a part of.
“I’ll say something when I see him at our meeting, because it’s every week,” Creed emphasized. “[Hemric] had me picked up on lap 7 of practice this week. I just don’t understand it.”
Creed was officially credited with a 27th-place finish Saturday night at Martinsville.
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