JR Motorsports rolled into the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase presented by Mobil 1 holding all the cards, boasting Justin Allgaier's career-high six regular-season wins for the No. 1 seed and Carson Kvapil taking two of the last three before the postseason. Yet a third of the way through the Chase, the hottest driver in the field belongs to the Haas Factory Team. Sheldon Creed has completely rewritten the script, stringing together a stellar 1-2-1 finishing stretch to open the postseason and surging 11 points ahead of Allgaier for the series lead.
That meteoric rise comes after a famous run of near misses, having finished runner-up a record 15 times before finally breaking through for his first O’Reilly Series victory in his 138th start. That drought-breaker came in February at EchoPark Speedway after five-time track winner Austin Hill went sideways in the final set of corners, snapping a nearly five-year winless streak across all levels of NASCAR for the 2020 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion. Win No. 2 followed over seven months later at Darlington Raceway, where he led the final 49 laps while Allgaier battled late handling issues to finish 17th. Then came a victory two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway, courtesy of a daring four-tire call with 20 laps to go that safely navigated late chaos at the front.
Personality-wise, driving style, I think they’re very, very similar,
For Creed, who previously had stints with Richard Childress Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing resulting in points finishes no higher than sixth, the reward of driving a race car at tracks that demand true driver skill is deeply satisfying. "I really just wanted to win somewhere where you had to drive the race car and somewhere that’s hard to drive the car," Creed said. That steadfast belief never wavered through 16 regular-season top-10 finishes, including a streak of nine straight where he placed no worse than seventh.
Much of that steady consistency traces back to Jonathan Toney, who crew-chiefs the No. 00 Chevrolet. Toney spent two seasons leading Cole Custer at then-called Stewart-Haas Racing to a championship and a second-place finish in points before pairing with Creed last year, finding an almost identical driving style and temperament between the two drivers. "Personality-wise, driving style, I think they’re very, very similar," the fourth-year shot-caller noted.
Creed admits that Haas is his favorite organization he has driven for, pointing to his bond with Toney and shared feedback with teammate Sam Mayer as keys to their synchronized success. Now, with six straight races remaining after an off week — including three intermediates and a finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway — the 29-year-old sits in prime position to chase history. A title would crown him the first driver ever to win championships in the ARCA Menards Series, Truck Series, and O’Reilly Series.
