In his fourth full-time season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Sheldon Creed has raced with three of the top-tier teams in his pursuit of not only an Xfinity title, but a win as well.
From entering his rookie season with Richard Childress Racing to racing with Joe Gibbs Racing to running the 2023 championship-winning No. 00 Ford Mustang with Haas Factory Team, Creed has shown race-winning pace with all three organizations, racing under all three manufacturers that compete in the Xfinity Series but still fighting to find his maiden win.
Creed took time at Iowa Speedway to talk with Frontstretch about chasing that elusive first win and if he feels the pressure of needing to win in year four. He also spoke on his fight to make the Xfinity Series playoffs this season, his vlogging platform, racing in other series outside of NASCAR and his incident between former teammates Austin Hill and Aric Almirola at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Wyatt Watson, Frontstretch: You’ve had an interesting career path so far in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. You’ve been to Joe Gibbs Racing. You’ve been to RCR. Now you’re here with Haas Factory Team and their rebrand. What’s so different between this team and others you’ve been with?
Sheldon Creed: They have their differences in the car, obviously three different manufacturers and engines. They all kind of have the things that they like and the ways that they drive different. They all have their positives.
Watson: You’ve come second more than anyone in this series before their first win. Well documented of course, but I want to know what that first win would look like in terms of a celebration for you personally from just how long you’ve been fetching to get it here.
Creed: Yeah, I‘ve been extremely close way too many times. One, it would be a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, finally being able to go to victory lane, and just excitement. It’s hard to go 3.5 years without winning. It’s tough mentally at times, but I’m sure we’ll do a good job celebrating.
Watson: You had a front row seat of Almirola and Hill at Indianapolis. You’ve raced with Hill as a teammate, and y’all have made up since then, but what was your take on what happened between those two?
Creed: I don’t know. It’s tough to read it. Obviously, I wish I was five car lengths behind them and didn’t get involved in it because it kind of ruined our day. I wasn’t driving, so hard to say exactly. Hopefully, everyone can move on from here and have a good rest of the season.
Watson: You ended up still finishing but not where you wanted to. Are you still comfortable in your points situation or are you still worried about someone notching a win?
Creed: You could be in a worse spot. My crew chief (Johnathan Toney) and I were actually laughing the other day. We have six DNFs this year (now seven after Watkins Glen) just being caught up in crashes or getting hit and ruining our day, and to still be where we’re at, within 20 points of being fifth or sixth in points. When we are solid, we do score solid points days, but I would love to be 80-100 plus [ahead] come Daytona, which is going to make these next two weeks really important to do that.
You just never know who’s going to win. The No. 54 [Taylor Gray] and No. 18 [William Sawalich], they’re capable of bringing really fast racecars and popping off a win. I think there’s other guys like the No. 16 [Christian Eckes] and a couple guys outside right now that could pop off a win, and that would put us in a tighter situation. Just (need) to keep stacking points and then, hopefully, get to Daytona with a comfortable gap, because you just never know if you’re going to get crashed or what’s going to happen and to still be safe. That’s the goal, just to stack points.
I’d love to win this weekend or next to not even have to worry about it. We’d love to lock ourselves a couple of races early if everything goes right and, more importantly, just build some confidence for the team, get some momentum going before the playoffs and show that we can be a team that can have a strong run through.
Watson: Is there any pressure to get that first win with how long you’ve been in the Xfinity Series?
Creed: Oh yeah, tons. Coming out of Trucks, I had a shot at winning every week. To go to Xfinity and kind of struggle at first, I feel like I’ve gotten better every year. You learn every weekend and get a little bit better. To not win has, I feel like, taken my stock from being in the conversation for a Cup car to now, there’s kids in front of me on that list. That part’s frustrating, and you have to win at this level. You have to win to want to move on. That’s always in the back of my head.
Watson: You are a motorsport fanatic with all the stuff you get into with dirt racing, back when you ran Stadium Super Trucks as well. What’s your favorite alternate motorsport to NASCAR that you like racing on a consistent basis?
Creed: Man, that’s tough. I loved stadium trucks. Those were always a ton of fun. Honestly, when I raced Lucas Oil Off Road (Racing Series) short course, those are the most fun thing to drive and race. It’s just unfortunate. It’s gone through a few different owners once Lucas backed out …
It’s just kind of died and it’s such a great motorsport series. I wish it was bigger than it was, but it’s hard. We race 33 weekends a year, so it’s hard to get time to go do stuff like that on the weekends.
I would say nowadays it’s micro racing. I love sprint cars. I always watch Flo and Dirtvision, High Limit stuff or World of Outlaws. We’re actually going to go to Knoxville tonight and go watch [Brett] Moffitt race. Excited to go watch some sprint car racing live, but micro racing is super fun. It’s affordable. It’s easy. We race on Wednesday nights at Millbridge, which I actually just raced last week for the first time in six months. Would love to be able to do it more. It’s just with our schedules, it’s kind of difficult at times, but anything dirt track racing in general I love, but yeah, micros for me right now is probably my favorite outside of NASCAR.
Watson: Are you going to vlog your experience going to that? Additionally, how much do you enjoy doing those kinds of vlogs on YouTube?
Creed: At first, my buddy Briar, he was just getting into it. So, we’ve just kind of evolved together. I remember our first couple of videos, it’s like awkward, and he was learning how to edit and stuff. I feel like we’ve gotten way more fluent. We don’t get a ton of views, maybe anywhere from 800 to 5,000 just depending on the video.
Watson: It’s going to be 50,000 if you win.
Creed: Yeah, it’s hard to compete on YouTube. There’s just so many things to watch for people. It’s fun. We did a video from Millbridge last week. We tied it to our Indy video. Things like that are fun just to show people behind the scenes stuff. I think from the outside, it looks like a lot of drivers don’t do anything outside of racing. So, it’s fun to show that, and I work on my own car, keep it at my house and do pretty much everything on my own. It gets my head off of this stuff, and I can focus on that for a day. It’s honestly a stress reliever. Hopefully, [we’ll] do some more outside-the-box stuff outside of racing, hopefully some stuff with some Ford vehicles here soon.
With three races to go in the Xfinity Series playoffs, Creed sits 77 points above the cut line heading into Friday’s (Aug. 22) race at Daytona after recording finishes of 7th and 35th at Iowa and Watkins Glen, respectively. His teammate Sam Mayer captured the team’s first win as HFT in the No. 41 at Iowa, locking himself into the playoffs.
Wyatt Watson has followed motorsports closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretch as a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt is one of Frontstretch's primary IndyCar correspondents, providing exclusive video content on site. He hosts Frontstretch's Through the Gears podcast and occasionally The Pit Straight.You can find Wyatt's written work in columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monsteras well as exclusive IndyCar features. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media team, posting unique and engaging content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on X @WyattWRacing