Sheldon Creed reflects on his JGR gamble after "stupid" move made his RCR exit ugly

Sheldon Creed has outlined that since entering the Joe Gibbs Racing garage, he has gone from being "low in confidence" to growing in morale week after another. The Xfinity Series racing driver had a controversial exit from Richard Childress Racing last year after his "stupid" move at Martinsville destroyed his and former teammate Austin Hill's advancement to the Championship 4 race.

The 2020 Truck Series champion debuted at the Xfinity level in 2017 with JD Motorsports and ran a handful of races until the end of 2021, for multiple teams. However, in 2022, Creed marked his rookie year in NXS, fielding RCR's #2 Chevy.

In his first year with Richard Childress' organization, the 26-year-old had four top-5s, 13 top-10s, and finished 14th in the standings. The year 2023 saw Creed collect seven top-5s and 15 top-10s. He was in a must-win situation at the race preceding the Championship 4 battle and inched closer to materializing it.

However, the battle for victory between him and Austin Hill resulted in repeated door slams. It cascaded into the latter wrecking out moments before finishing the race while Creed lost the domination to Justin Allgaier by 0.032 seconds.

Thus, both drivers failed to advance to the playoff finale at Phoenix Raceway. This infuriated the RCR team owner following which he slammed Sheldon Creed for his "stupid" move. Speaking to NBC Sports in October of 2023, Childress said:

"I’ve had drivers drive for me before but nobody as stupid as Sheldon Creed. You don’t do that as a team player. What else do you want me to tell you?" Childress told NBC Sports.

Though Creed was slated to exit RCR after the 2023 season, his Martinsville move made the same process ugly.

But after the gamble to move to JGR, he has found plenty of success in the series, with 13 top-5s. Ahead of the playoff opener at Kansas Speedway, the #18 Toyota driver shed light on his time with his current team and the confidence growth since coming under Joe Gibbs' eye. He said (via Joseph Srigley on X).

"I think it certainly has," Creed said on his JGR gamble paying off. "I came to JGR pretty low in confidence and wasn't even sure if I was having fun with it anymore. That's all turned around, I think my confidence grows every week. We've been leading laps more recently lately. I don't want to say, 'Should've won Darlington,' but was in a position to win in Darlington. So yeah, confidence has been up," Creed said (0:15)

Placed ninth, Sheldon Creed will enter the Kansas race with a 3-point deficit to the playoff cutline.

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"It’s not a cool record": Sheldon Creed after the unwanted streak of P2 finishes continued at Bristol

Creed didn't have a promising qualifying run and stood as the 14th-fastest driver. However, as the Food City 300 battle went green, the JGR driver surged to a third-place finish in Stage 1 and settled in fourth during the second stage.

On Lap 258, Sheldon Creed's #18 Toyota got into the wall while he was running second. Still, he didn't let his guard fall and maintained his dominant track position. The JGR driver finished second, by a margin of 0.896 seconds over Cole Custer, who also won the regular season championship after triumphing at Bristol.

From 26 Xfinity starts this season, Creed has bagged 13 top-5s, 17 top-10s, 2 poles, and led 108 laps. However, despite unwavering efforts to clinch the win, he has finished second six times, and his #18 Toyota is yet to see itself in the victory lane.

The Californian commented on his string of P2 finishes, saying it's not cool to miss the mark several times. He said (via Frontstretch on X).

“I think that our momentum is great. We’re really consistent so we need to keep that up. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s not a cool record but we’ll win one of these days,” Creed said (0:56).

Sheldon Creed will depart from JGR and move to the Haas Factory Team in 2025.