Sheldon Creed maneuvered through several late-race cautions to claim his first Camping World Truck Series victory of the year at Darlington Raceway Friday night. His No. 2 GMS Racing Chevrolet featured a Throwback paint scheme honoring the late Jason Leffler.
It was his sixth career Truck Series win and his fourth top-10 finish this season. Creed also won the Triple Truck Challenge presented by Womply, earning a $50,000 bonus.
The pivotal moment of the race came on Lap 119 when John Hunter Nemechek and Corey Heim got turned into each other after contact from behind, collecting at least 17 cars in the chain reaction that followed. A red flag was thrown to clear the track and apply speedy dry to absorb the fluids.
On the final restart, it came down to a battle between Rhodes and Creed.
“It feels great,” Creed said after the win. “Didn’t have the best truck there, for sure. Firing off, I was really tight. Then I was wrecking loose there, just doing everything I could. I was really aggressive on restarts; that’s what it takes. We’ve been struggling, but we keep chipping away at it. We’re getting better trucks the last couple weeks. All I ask for are trucks I can race with.”
His victory ended Toyota’s dominance of seven wins this year and disrupted Kyle Busch Motorsports’ five-race winning streak.
Ben Rhodes led 34 laps during the race in his No. 99 ThorSport Racing Toyota but after two flat tires and a penalty, was able to work his way back to the front and rallied to a second-place finish.
“I saw going into the corner we were going to push low,” Rhodes said, “so I tried to work our way back up to give us some line so we could be side by side coming off of (Turn) 2, but got really loose. Luckily, we saved it, but it was an up-and-down night. I had a lot of fun.
“We set ourselves up for the end there with our Bombardier Tundra to go for a long run — with like low pressures, and then lo and behold, red flags and caution after caution after caution. So what do you do, right? He had seven-lap newer tires, some help on the restarts, and I guess conditions were perfect for him, but I’m not going to pout about it. I’m driving a race car. I’m happy.”
Carson Hocevar was the highest finishing rookie after a third-place result in his first race at Darlington Raceway. Matt Crafton and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top five.
Johnny Sauter, Timmy Hill, Nemechek, Austin Wayne Self and Jordan Anderson finished sixth-10th, respectively.
Todd Gilliland won Stage 1 but finished 15th after being caught up in the incident on Lap 119. Nemechek, who led a race-high 65 laps and won Stage 2, recovered to finish eighth.
There were 12 cautions for 66 laps during the race. The final incident, however, occurred after Creed had taken the white flag, so no flag was thrown and Creed was announced as the winner.
There were no issues in post-race inspection.
Nemechek leads the standings with 368 points followed by Rhodes (-46), Creed (-82), Austin Hill (-93) and Matt Crafton (-121).
The Camping World Truck Series will be off next weekend and will return on May 22 to compete at Circuit of the Americas at 1 p.m. on FS1.
Official Results – Camping World Truck Series LiftKits4Less.com 200:
1. Sheldon Creed
2. Ben Rhodes
3. Carson Hocevar
4. Matt Crafton
5. Johnny Sauter
6. Grant Enfinger
7. Timmy Hill
8. John Hunter Nemechek
9. Austin Wayne Self
10. Jordan Anderson
11. Ryan Truex
12. Ryan Reed
13. Austin Hill
14. Tyler Ankrum
15. Todd Gilliland
16. Zane Smith
17. Erik Darnell
18. Danny Bohn
19. Timothy Peters
20. Hailie Deegan
21. Bayley Currey
22. Spencer Boyd
23. Corey Heim
24. Jennifer Jo Cobb
25. Stewart Friesen
26. Parker Kligerman
27. Chandler Smith
28. David Gilliland
29. Spencer Davis
30. Tate Fogleman
31. Dawson Cram
32. BJ McLeod
33. Tanner Gray
34. Akinori Ogata
35. Derek Kraus
36. Chase Purdy
37. Norm Benning
38. Codie Rohrbaugh
39. Kris Wright
40. Cory Ropera
