Starting 17th, Sheldon Creed had a lot of ground to make up at the road course in Canada. It wasn’t easy for him in the first Stage as he finished 15th. However, the team had him stay out for Stage 2 in order to gain track position. Creed restarted the second stage in fourth.
Under a Lap 31 yellow, the team elected for him to come down pit road for tires and fuel. While this would put him in the back for Stage 2, Creed is out of the Playoffs. Stage points do not matter at this point in the season but pit strategy is everything.
By staying out under the Stage 2 break, he was able to have another good starting position for the final stage by restarting sixth. Creed quietly remained in the top five until the checkered flag flew, where he finished fourth.
“Just focus on the windshield, I had cars behind us, I think 16 (Hill) and the 45 (Chastain) started battling,” Creed told MRN Radio. “Good finish for how our weekend started. I wrecked the primary in second practice. These guys worked hard putting the back up together last night and started in the back, and try to learn as much as I could. I’m just happy with our finish here, fourth place. Battled with our teammate pretty good there at the end, he ended up locking it and kind of handed me the pass, but want to thank my guys.”
“Chevy, GMS, everyone that helps me out and can’t wait to come back next year.”
The fourth-place finish was Creed’s third top five of the year.
While Creed isn’t in the Playoffs, Austin Hill is and he was looking for a good points day coming into Canada below the cut line.
Hill qualified sixth Sunday morning and started out consistent. He finished the No. 16 HRE truck in third place in Stage 1 and second in Stage 2. For the final stage, he had his work cut out for him, restarting 10th after making a pit stop under the stage break.
However, the Georgia native was able to come back and finish fifth, rounding out the top five finishers at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in what seemed like a quiet race by Hill.
“Our Don Valley North Toyota Tundra was really good all day,” Hill said to MRN Radio. “We struggled a little bit on center turn, getting it pinched and being able to put the throttle down with the steering wheel straight. but all in all, it was a good points day for us. I think if we were going to win, we were going to have to short pit and we wanted to go for stage points instead of short-pit because who knows if you would have won the race.”
“All in all, to come home with the top five, that’s what we needed to do and going to Las Vegas, we’re going for another win.”
Hill sits fifth in the playoff points standings, +5 with one race to go in the Round of 8.
