It has been a long wait for Sheldon Creed, but on Saturday night at EchoPark Speedway, the luck finally went his way.
After 15 runner-up finishes, Creed took the checkered flag in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race following a wild finish in Atlanta where contact between Austin Hill and Ross Chastain saw the lead change over to the No. 00 Chevrolet coming out of turn 4.
After 137 starts in the O’Reilly Series, the former Craftsman Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series champion is a winner at the second-highest level in NASCAR.
“I’ve been a loser the last few years and just kept showing up,” said Creed to CW Sports on the frontstretch. “I don’t know if one win will kind of revive my career but maybe if I win a few this year, it will.”
Hill took the lead late in the race after a fierce battle with Creed, Chastain, Nick Sanchez and more, but was turned into turn 3 on the final lap after Chastain got a massive run from Creed on the outside lane. Hill tried to block and contact was made. Hill made an amazing save on the apron and ended up 12th while Chastain finished sixth.
“When Ross is behind you, I expect to get put firewall deep in the wall,” said Hill on pit road postrace. “That’s just the things that he does.”
“I definitely hit him too far to the right, I was trying to get to his left rear and had the wheel turned and I turned him,” said Chastain.
Parker Retzlaff finished second. Nick Sanchez, a winner at Atlanta last season, finished third for AM Racing. Corey Day finished fourth and Jesse Love rounded out the top five.
The race saw its fair share of carnage. It started early on lap five after Day made contact with Ryan Sieg, setting off a crash involving both Sieg, his brother Kyle Sieg, Harrison Burton and Blaine Perkins.
Later in the race, Day slid up the track and got into Carson Kvapil, sending him and Justin Allgaier into the outside wall, ending both their nights. Day got back on the lead lap later in the race and ultimately registered a top-five.
Sammy Smith blew a tire while racing inside the top 10 with 21 laps remaining which ended his race early along with Lavar Scott, Brennan Poole, William Sawalich, Nick Leitz and others involved.
Love won the opening stage, while Rajah Caruth won the second stage in the No. 88 JR Motorsports entry. Caruth made a couple great saves tonight including one with 12 laps to go after a tire went down but Josh Williams ended up crashing in that incident.
Sam Mayer, who sat on pole but was down as many as three laps earlier in the race due to a blown tire, fought back to finish seventh.
Atlanta O’Reilly Race Results
The NASCAR O’Reilly Series will be back in action on next Saturday (Feb. 28) at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin at 3 p.m. ET for the third race of the season. Coverage of this race will be broadcasted on your local CW Network.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
Corey Day doing his version of Cletus McFarland