After accumulating 15 runner-up results through four full-time seasons in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series division, Sheldon Creed is winless no more. He is instead a winner, a feat he achieved for the first time amid a wild finish to the Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 at EchoPark Speedway on Saturday, February 21.
The 2020 Craftsman Truck Series champion from Alpine, California, led six times for 17 of 163 scheduled laps. He took the green flag in fourth place and raced upfront. Then, during a six-lap dash to the finish, Creed, who raced as high as second and low as fifth, was dueling for third place on the final lap.
After the leaders, Austin Hill and Ross Chastain, made contact exiting the backstretch. This caused Hill to spin sideways and Chastain to lose momentum. Then the seas parted way for Creed. He stormed to the lead, motored away, and triumphed for the first elusive time in the O’Reilly division.
On-track qualifying determined the starting lineup on Friday, February 20. Sam Mayer secured his first O’Reilly Auto Parts Series pole position of 2026 with a pole-winning lap at 174.318 mph in 31.804 seconds. Carson Kvapil started alongside Mayer on the front row after posting his fastest lap at 173.875 mph in 31.885 seconds.
Before the event, Justin Allgaier, Jeb Burton, Ross Chastain and Jeremy Clements dropped to the rear of the field. This was due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved, pole-sitter Sam Mayer gained a slight launch from the outside lane through the frontstretch. This was due to teammate Sheldon Creed drafting him. Carson Kvapil then fought back from the inside lane by drawing even with Mayer through the first two turns. Despite having Taylor Gray drafting, Kvapil continued to battle dead even with Mayer for the lead through the backstretch. As the field cycled back to the frontstretch, Mayer used the outside lane to lead the first lap over Kvapil.
On the fourth lap, the event’s first caution flew. Corey Day and Ryan Sieg made contact amid a near three-wide battle that also involved Giovanni Ruggiero. The contact, which started as the field entered the frontstretch. Sieg got loose as Ruggiero hit the frontstretch’s outside wall. This triggered a multi-car wreck involving Sieg’s brother, Kyle, and left both Sieg brothers displeased with Day’s early driving.
Harrison Burton, Blaine Perkins and Patrick Staropoli were also involved in the carnage. At the moment of caution. Mayer retained the lead over Creed, Gray, Rajah Caruth and Kvapil. Sammy Smith, Jesse Love, William Sawalich, Ruggiero and Austin Hill were scored in the top 10, respectively.
The event’s next restart occurred on Lap 12, and it featured both Mayer and Taylor Gray dueling in front of the field stacked up through two lanes through the first two turns and the backstretch. When the field cycled back to the frontstretch, Gray went up the track and made contact with Mayer’s left side. This caused a tire rub and smoke to billow out of Mayer’s entry. Gray led the next lap in a heated battle with Mayer. Despite racing with a left-front tire rub, Mayer continued to duel, swapping the lead with Gray through the following six laps.
By Lap 20, Mayer motored ahead of Gray after receiving a draft from teammate Creed a lap earlier. He led a long line of competitors that were racing behind him single-file towards the outside wall. Behind Mayer, Creed settled in second ahead of Caruth. They were followed by Gray and Ruggiero. Sammy Smith, Kvapil, Love, Austin Hill and William Sawalich were racing in the top 10, respectively.
Five laps later, Creed assumed the lead from teammate Mayer after the former made his move from the inside lane through the first two turns. Meanwhile, Mayer dropped to fourth place and he then dropped to 10th place during the next lap before he pitted under green. Mayer’s move to pit was due to a flat left-front tire stemming from the contact with Gray. As a result, Mayer became the second competitor to make an unscheduled pit stop under green. Anthony Alfredo pitted a few laps earlier due to a flat right-rear tire.
Back on the track, Jesse Love and Rajah Caruth battled for the lead and Austin Hill navigated into the top three. Both Caruth and Love remained dead even for the top spot through the Lap 30 mark. Creed, Parker Retzlaff, Hill and Gray pursued from behind within the draft.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Love, who led since Lap 31, captured his first stage victory of the 2026 season. Caruth edged Retzlaff to settle in second. Gray, Justin Allgaier, Creed, Kvapil, Nick Sanchez, Jeremy Clements and Ross Chastain were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, there had been seven lead changes for five different leaders. And, 28 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap. Meanwhile, Mayer was pinned three laps behind in 32nd place.
Under the event’s first stage break period, the lead lap field, led by Love, pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Love exited first. He was followed by Gray, who hit one of his mechanics while trying to exit his pit stall. As a result, he was penalized for a tire violation. Allgaier, Creed, Caruth, Kvapil, Brandon Jones, Retzlaff, Jeb Burton and Corey Day followed suit ahead of Sawalich, Ruggiero, Sammy Smith, Sanchez and Chastain.
The second stage period started on Lap 54 as Love and Creed occupied the front row. At the start, both dueled for the lead. They were followed by Kvapil, Allgaier, Caruth, Jeb Burton and the field through the first two turns and the backstretch. Love then motored ahead from the outside lane, cycling back to lead the next lap. Allgaier challenged Creed for the runner-up spot. Love proceeded to lead through the Lap 60 mark. Kvapil, Creed, Allgaier, Caruth, Jones, Sammy Smith and Corey Day all battled fiercely for top-five spots behind the leader.
On Lap 62, Creed overtook Love, who had been leading since Lap 55. He retained the lead for the following lap as Love went below Creed in a bid to reclaim the lead. Creed, though, motored ahead and retained the lead for the next lap as Allgaier battled Love for the runner-up spot. Both would be trailed by Allgaier’s teammates, Sammy Smith, Caruth and Kvapil while Retzlaff also joined the battle.
Amid a series of on-track battles and shuffling that ensued towards the front, Creed maintained the lead. He was followed by Allgaier, Love, Caruth, Smith and Kvapil at the Lap 70 mark.
On Lap 72, Caruth made a bold move beneath both Allgaier and Creed through the frontstretch, enabling the former to assume command entering the first two turns. Two laps later, teammate Kvapil tried to bolt ahead of Caruth from the inside lane through Turns 3 and 4. But the former had no drafting help through the frontstretch.
This allowed Caruth to retain the lead with drafting help from Creed and Allgaier before Creed tried to make a move beneath Caruth just past the Lap 75 mark. Creed dueled with Caruth for two laps before he barely slipped and was pinned in the middle of a three-wide battle in Turns 3 and 4. This resulted in him losing a handful of spots while Allgaier, Day and Kvapil moved up behind Caruth on the track on Lap 78.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Caruth, who led since Lap 78, fended off teammate Allgaier to secure his first stage victory. Allgaier followed suit in second place ahead of teammate Kvapil, Day and Jones. Sammy Smith, Austin Hill, Retzlaff, Creed and Love were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, there had been 14 lead changes for six different leaders. And, 28 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
During the event’s second stage break period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Caruth returned to pit road for service. Lavar Scott and Chad Finchum remained on the track. Once the latter two pitted not long after as the caution laps proceeded, Sawalich, who opted for only a two-tire pit service, cycled to the lead. He was followed by Retzlaff, Kvapil, Allgaier, Day and Caruth.
With 64 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Sawalich and Kvapil occupied the front row. At the front row, the inside lane led by Kvapil gained the upper advantage through the first two turns as Kvapil assumed command. With teammate Allgaier, Day, Sawalich and the rest of the field following in pursuit, Kvapil led the next lap. During which, the field fanned out to three-packed lanes through the turns and straightaways.
In the midst of the three-wide action, Caruth and Love were racing outside the top-10 mark. Both Creed and Hill were trying to form a charge from the inside lane. Meanwhile, a majority of the field opted to race in single-line formation towards the outside wall. Kvapil, who led the lane, maintained the lead with 60 laps remaining.
A lap later, the caution flew when Day, who was dueling beneath Kvapil for the lead through the backstretch, made contact with Kvapil. The contact sent both Kvapil and Day, along with Allgaier, against the outside wall entering Turns 3 and 4. The trio sustained damage to their respective Chevrolet entries. Amid the chaos, Austin Hill, who spent the majority of the event trying to navigate his way to the front, motored through with the lead, followed by Creed, Sawalich, Sammy Smith and Retzlaff.
As the event restarted with 51 laps remaining, Hill dueled with Sawalich for the lead through the first two turns before he motored ahead with drafting help from Creed and Sammy Smith from the outside lane. Hill led the next lap over Creed as a majority of the field behind migrated behind the leader in single-line formation towards the outside wall. Meanwhile, Hill’s teammate, Love, was trying to formulate a run from the inside lane, but he slowly began to lose ground of the lead as he had no drafting help. Love managed to navigate his way back up to fourth place with 45 laps remaining as Hill continued to lead ahead of Creed and Smith.
Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Hill was leading ahead of Creed, Love, Smith, Retzlaff, Ross Chastain, Nick Sanchez, Caruth, Sawalich and Jeb Burton while Dean Thompson, Jones, Gray, Austin Green, Josh Williams, Patrick Staropoli, Mason Maggio, Nick Leitz, Brennan Poole and Lavar Scott were racing in the top 20, respectively.
Following another caution that flew with 39 laps remaining due to debris that was scattered across the frontstretch and due to an incident involving Cody Ware, the next restart with 32 laps remaining featured Hill receiving a draft from Creed that allowed the former to zip ahead of teammate Love through the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field raced in two-wide formation amid the drafting pack and cycled back to the frontstretch, Hill led the next lap. He then led the following lap with 30 laps remaining. Meanwhile, Love managed to settle in second ahead of Creed, Smith, Caruth and Sanchez, respectively.
With 27 laps remaining, Love tried to make a move beneath teammate Hill in his bid for the lead through the first two turns. But he did not have the momentum to execute the pass on his own. Through the backstretch, he tried to file in behind Hill in the draft, but he barely clipped and briefly got Hill sideways. This allowed Creed to motor past both and assume the lead entering Turns 3 and 4.
Creed proceeded to lead the next two laps before a three-wide action involving him, Hill and Chastain ensued through the backstretch. With the field also fanning out to three-stacked lanes, Hill lost a handful of spots while pinned in the middle lane. Chastain then used the inside lane to take the lead. Amid a multitude of three-wide action, tight-packed racing and a sideways save by Caruth, Chastain retained the lead with 24 laps remaining.
Then, with 22 laps remaining, the caution flew as Sammy Smith, racing in the top-10 mark, fell off the pace, snapping sideways in Turn 1 due to a cut tire. Smith’s spin triggered a multi-car wreck that involved Taylor Gray, Sawalich, Lavar Scott, Ryan Ellis, Brennan Poole, Ruggiero, Nick Leitz and Mason Maggio.
The next restart, with 14 laps remaining, featured Chastain motoring ahead of Hill with drafting help from Creed through the first two turns. Hill, though, motored back ahead from the inside lane as he had teammate Love drafting him, but Chastain managed to draw back even with Hill through the frontstretch during the next lap. Chastain then received another push from Creed to motor back ahead through the backstretch. This allowed Chastain to lead the next lap while Creed and Hill battled for second in front of Jones, Love, Caruth, Jeb Burton and Parker Retzlaff.
The caution returned with 12 laps remaining when Josh Williams, who was racing in ninth place, got rear-ended by Mayer through the backstretch. This caused Williams to veer to the right and slam the outside wall in front of Caruth, the latter of whom had gotten loose for a second time towards the backstretch’s outside wall. As Williams tried to save his damaged entry, he ended up making more contact with the inside wall. This latest incident was enough for the event to be placed in a red flag period.
When the red flag lifted and the field restarted under green with six laps remaining, Chastain received another early boost from Creed to motor ahead of Hill from the outside lane. Chastain then retained the lead for a full lap while Hill battled with Creed for the runner-up spot and in front of 14 other competitors stacked in a tight pack for the lead.
As Chastain continued to lead with five laps remaining, Sanchez made a bold three-wide move in between both Love and Hill for third place through Turns 3 and 4. During the next lap, Sanchez went beneath Creed and overtook him for the runner-up spot through the backstretch. As the field fanned out through three tight-packed lanes, Sanchez reeled in on Chastain and tried to make a move to Chastain’s right, but the latter blocked the move.
As Chastain led with three laps remaining, Love and Hill overtook Sanchez through three lanes. Creed, Retzlaff, Mayer and Jeb Burton would also overtake Sanchez through the backstretch as Hill, Love and Creed proceeded to reel in Chastain for the lead. Once Chastain led with two laps remaining, Hill executed his overtake on the latter exiting the backstretch.
When the white flag waved, and the final lap started, Hill remained in the lead over Chastain, Creed, Love, Mayer, and the field through the frontstretch. Then, after Hill led through the first two turns and a majority of the backstretch, Chastain reeled in and tried to execute a race-winning pass below Hill entering Turn 3. With Hill darting left to try and block Chastain’s momentum, contact was made as Hill was sent sideways below the apron.
As Hill was losing the lead and with Chastain losing momentum, Creed, who was drafting Chastain through the backstretch, emerged as the leader. With the caution flag not flying and no drafts occurring behind him, Creed was able to cycle his No. 00 Road Ranger/Haas Factory Team Chevrolet Camaro entry back to the frontstretch and claim his first elusive checkered flag in the series by over Retzlaff.
With the victory, Creed, who won in his 138th career start, became the 182nd competitor overall to win in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series division. He also joins Jeff Gordon, Mike Skinner, Jamie McMurray, Carl Edwards and Nick Sanchez as competitors to record a first career O’Reilly victory at Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway.
“Incredible,” Creed said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “[I’ve] Been a loser the last few years and just kept showing up. Not how you draw it up when you win a Truck championship, win races and you go to [O’Reilly] and go four years winless. Incredible. [I] Thank all my past teams, [Richard Childress Racing] and [Joe Gibbs Racing]. They all gave me great opportunities. Now here with Haas Factory Team, back with Chevrolet,…Incredible. Incredible.”
“[Taking the lead] Never plays how you kind of draw it up,” Creed added. “[I’m] Finally a winner and maybe, I don’t know if one win will kind of revive my career, but maybe if I win a few this year, it will. [I’m] Probably going to drink a ton of Coors Light tonight.”
Behind Creed, Parker Retzlaff, who changed teams from Alpha Prime Racing to Viking Motorsports at the start of this season, achieved a career-best runner-up result in his 109th series start. Nick Sanchez, who recorded his first O’Reilly career victory at Atlanta last June, settled in third place while Corey Day and Jesse Love finished in the top five.
Ross Chastain fell back to sixth place ahead of Sam Mayer, who plowed through the frontstretch’s grass and damaged his front end after trying to peel his entry off the track and on pit road moments after congratulating teammate Creed.
Rajah Caruth, Taylor Gray, Brandon Jones and Dean Thompson finished eighth through 11th. Austin Hill, who led a race-high 34 laps in his bid to win the first Atlanta event for a fourth consecutive time, salvaged a 12th-place result after managing to continue from spinning sideways through Turns 3 and 4.
There were 24 lead changes for 11 different leaders. The event featured seven cautions for 46 laps. In addition, 19 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the second event of the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season, Austin Hill continues to lead the standings by 22 points over Rajah Caruth, 24 over both Sheldon Creed and Jesse Love, 30 over Parker Retzlaff and 35 over Justin Allgaier.
Results:
1. Sheldon Creed, 17 laps led
2. Parker Retzlaff
3. Nick Sanchez
4. Corey Day
5. Jesse Love, 31 laps led, Stage 1 winner
6. Ross Chastain, 22 laps led
7. Sam Mayer, 23 laps led
8. Rajah Caruth, 22 laps led, Stage 2 winner
9. Taylor Gray, two laps led
10. Brandon Jones
11. Dean Thompson
12. Austin Hill, 34 laps led
13. Patrick Staropoli
14. Garrett Smithley
15. Josh Bilicki
16. Jeb Burton
17. Chad Finchum
18. Nick Leitz
19. Brennan Poole
20. Luke Fenhaus, one lap down
21. Austin Green, one lap down
22. Ryan Ellis, two laps down
23. William Sawalich, two laps down, five laps led
24. Giovanni Ruggiero, three laps down
25. Anthony Alfredo, three laps down
26. Mason Maggio – OUT, Engine
27. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident
28. Lavar Scott – OUT, Accident, one lap led
29. Jeremy Clements, 14 laps down
30. Sammy Smith – OUT, Accident
31. Cody Ware – OUT, Suspension
32. Carson Kvapil – OUT, Accident, five laps led
33. Justin Allgaier – OUT, Accident, one lap led
34. Joey Gase – OUT, Engine
35. Harrison Burton – OUT, DVP
36. Blaine Perkins – OUT, DVP
37. Ryan Sieg – OUT, Accident
38. Kyle Sieg – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule is Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, for the Focused Health 250. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, February 28, and air at 3 p.m. ET on the CW Network, PRN Radio and SiriusXM.
