“Today was our day”: Sheldon Creed left disappointed after Christopher Bell takes away Xfinity win at Darlington 

Sheldon Creed was disappointed with how Saturday's Xfinity Series race, which initially seemed like a clean victory, resulted in a third-place finish for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver while his teammate, Christopher Bell, took the checkered flag. Despite leading 30 of the 150-lap race at Darlington Raceway, Creed lost positions due to a slower pit stop.

Sheldon Creed's first career victory came at a Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway in July 2020, followed by wins at Daytona International Speedway Road Course, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Texas Motor Speedway, and finally the Championship race at Phoenix Raceway.

Besides the 2020 Truck Series championship, he owns eight wins in the series altogether. Creed joined Joe Gibbs Racing as a full-time Xfinity Series driver this year.

Creed was well poised to win when he passed Bell with nine laps to go. However, a late-race caution sent the field to overtime and an additional round of pit stops. Creed committed to the pit road as the leader but came out third after there was a slight delay in changing his right rear tire. This pushed him to the second row on the restart.

"I was optimistic at first,” Creed said during a post-race interview with Frontstretch. "My pit crew had been really good all day. I figured we would come in first and leave first. I needed to at least probably be on the front row for a green-white-checkered like that. Just did my best with restarting fourth like that."

"I don’t know. I’m obviously really bummed because today was our day, and I felt like I put in one of my best performances. To have a caution like that ruin, it sucks," he added.

Although the race did not end the way Creed had wanted it to, the 26-year-old secured his tenth top-5 finish of the year. His No. 18 team also registered two of the three fastest pit stops. Furthermore, Creed collected a race-high 50 points. As of now, he sits fifth in the NASCAR Xfinity standings with 704 to his name.

Sheldon Creed reflects on racing his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate

Sheldon Creed (18) races against teammate Christopher Bell (20) at the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 (Source: Imagn)

Sheldon Creed felt that it was "awesome" to hold off a Cup Series regular like Christopher Bell, who boasts nine race wins there. Speaking of the same in the interview with Frontstretch, Creed said,

"Yeah, I mean, that’s awesome, right? To pass Christopher Bell, (who's) at the top of Cup right now, it’s pretty cool to do. I’ve got a lot of haters that say I can’t do it. I feel like maybe today I proved them wrong a little bit."

Only three races are left till NASCAR kicks off the Round of 12 opener at Kansas Speedway on September 28. Next week, the Xfinity Series will visit Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Focused Health 250. Fans can watch the 163-lap event (3:00 PM ET) on USA and listen to live radio updates on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.