Sheldon Creed’s Pro Skater falls short, Noah Gragson takes Darlington

Sheldon Creed was going to do all he could to make the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs, even if it meant running full speed and riding the wall. Unfortunately for him, as sparks poured out of his car, Noah Gragson had more than enough momentum on the inside line through the final two corners to beat him to the finish.

Creed, whose rookie season has been plagued by bad luck and misfortunes, looked to be the late favourite in Saturday’s event at Darlington Raceway as he led much of the final stage. Brandon Jones’ spin set up a fourteen-lap run to the finish in which he faced challenges from Gragson and Cup Series driver Kyle Larson. Larson caught Creed’s bumper in the waning moments before attempting his move as they began the final lap, which led to contact that pushed Creed into the wall.

As Larson and Creed ran side-by-side along the backstretch, Gragson capitalised by passing both of them on the inside. Creed felt his right-front tyre suffer a flat and, not sensing any other option if he wanted to win, did not brake entering turns three and four and consequently hit the wall. The move sacrificed Creed’s car to scrape more speed together in what many dubbed a “video game move”, but Gragson on the shorter inside groove with a consistent high speed rendered his action for naught.

Despite the defeat, Creed did not hold ill feeling towards Larson and shook his hand on pit road. Although he fell short of the win, the runner-up finish is the best of his Xfinity career to date and elevated him to thirteenth in points, sixteen below the playoff cut line with two races remaining. The forty-seven laps led were also his most in an Xfinity race.

“I was hoping they were going to get to racing behind me and kind of let me go there and when Kyle got next to me, my only opportunity was to go and side-draft as hard as I could,” Creed told NBC Sports. “We got in the wall there and I felt the right-front go down there going down the backstretch, so the only option was to pin it against the fence like playing Xbox or something. It worked for a while and then I just got stuck in it. Man, I wish that would have worked.”

Gragson won Stage #1 and led a race-high eighty-two laps en route to his career-best fourth win of 2022. It is his second win at Darlington after the 2021 Sport Clips VFW Help a Hero 200.

The race was delayed for two-and-a-half hours by rain after the first stage. Gragson’s JR Motorsports team-mate Justin Allgaier claimed the second stage and would finish fourth.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
2	3	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
3	19	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
4	6	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
5	7	17	Kyle Larson*	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
6	5	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	147	Running
7	36	18	Christopher Bell*	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	147	Running
8	15	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
9	17	26	John Hunter Nemechek*	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	147	Running
10	4	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
11	12	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
12	9	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
13	10	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
14	1	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	147	Running
15	11	48	Ross Chastain*	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	147	Running
16	16	34	Kyle Weatherman	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
17	14	45	Stefan Parsons*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
18	25	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	147	Running
19	22	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
20	27	91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
21	13	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
22	31	44	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
23	38	38	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	147	Running
24	18	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
25	30	08	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	147	Running
26	29	36	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	146	Running
27	26	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	146	Running
28	21	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	145	Running
29	32	78	Brandon Brown	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	145	Running
30	35	35	Dawson Cram	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Ford	145	Running
31	28	47	Brennan Poole*	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	86	Axle
32	23	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	83	Engine
33	20	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	61	Accident
34	8	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	56	DVP
35	24	02	Ty Dillon*	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	55	Electrical
36	34	68	Kris Wright*	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	55	Accident
37	37	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	51	Accident
38	33	5	Tommy Joe Martins	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	44	Radiator
DNQ		13	Chad Finchum	MBM Motorsports	Ford

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points