The 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season was supposed to mark a new era for Sheldon Creed as he moved to the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra after a couple of seasons in the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing entry. While Creed has three top-five finishes through the opening six races of the season, it’s been an all or nothing type year so far.
Mechanical issues have plagued Creed and the No. 18 team as they faltered to a 26th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and they finished 32nd a week ago at Circuit of the Americas. The frustration continued to mount in Saturday’s Toyota Care 250 at Richmond Raceway.
Creed, 26, had smoke billoughing from his race car, and eventually would take his struggling Toyota GR Supra to the garage. His day would be done after turning just 118 laps. After climbing from his car, Creed couldn’t contain his emotions in separate interviews with MRN and the FS1 broadcast teams.
When pressed by MRN about what put him out of the race, Creed fired back, “I honestly don’t know. It was junk from the start.”
Following the interview with MRN, Creed was able to get briefed by his Joe Gibbs Racing team about what the issue ultimately was. While it looked like a potential engine issue, it turns out it was something else that ended the day for Creed.
“I guess the right rear brake was dragging,” Creed explained. “I don’t know. Frustrated. That’s three weeks in a row that we’ve had car problems, and our teammates are out there leading the race. Pretty much all three weekends we have trouble. It’s so frustrating. We have so much potential on this No. 18 team, and to not be able to run all of the laps is just frustrating.”
The current frustration is certainly spilling over from the last couple of seasons as Creed has been so close, so many times to scoring a victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Heading into this weekend, Creed has amassed eight runner-up finishes. After Saturday’s latest frustrating end, Creed has come up empty 76 times.
