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NASCAR Xfinitiy Series driver Sheldon Creed reflects on appearance at Kutztown's Action Track USA

matthew knaub, reading eagle, pa.
·3 min read

Jul. 20—NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Sheldon Creed made his debut at Championship Action Track USA on Wednesday night at the Kutztown Fairgrounds.

While the Alpine, Calif., native and 2020 NASCAR Truck Series champion has spent the majority of his life racing at dozens of tracks across the country, Creed had some high praise for the one-fifth mile bullring.

"This is probably top 5 on my favorite dirt tracks list for micro sprints," Creed said. "This place is awesome."

Creed and two-time NASCAR Cup series champion Kyle Busch were two of the 114 drivers who competed in the wingless 600 micro sprint division on Wednesday night at the dirt track, which served as scheduled night No. 3 of the Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek.

"To make the A-main and finish eighth out of 114 cars, I'm pretty happy with that," Creed said.

Damon Paul of Stony Creek, N.Y., scored the victory in the 35-lap 600 micro sprint feature after starting on the pole. However, the win was not without some late-race drama.

Paul ran second to Douglassville's Timmy Buckwalter for the majority of the race. The two drivers tangled up on the backstretch with 10 laps remaining, causing a five-car pileup. In addition to Buckwalter, the race leader, the wreck included Kyle Busch, who was running fourth and ultimately and unable to complete the feature finished 23rd out of 26 cars.

Busch started 10th. He was not available for comment Wednesday.

After starting 21st, Creed methodically worked his way up during the later stages of the race to finish eighth. He finished 17th on Tuesday night at Clinton County Speedway in Mill Hall.

"If I can go and have fun and dirt race as much as I can, I'm going to try to," Creed said. "I would like to do it a lot more."

Creed, 25, drives the No. 2 car for Richard Childress Racing in the Xfinity Series, and is slated to make his Cup Series debut in the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports car on Sept. 10 at Kansas Speedway. He will race the No. 2 car on Saturday in the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond.

"It just allows us to come up here and have some fun," Creed said about competing in Pennsylvania ahead of his race at Pocono. "It's a lot of fun for us to come up as a family."

Creed grew up racing in a wide variety of disciplines, including dirt bikes, dirt cars, stock cars and off-road racing. He won a gold medal in the Stadium Super Trucks at the 2015 Summer X-Games in Austin, Texas.

"Just being creative, that's probably why I love it so much," Creed said about dirt racing. "It's not easy."

On dirt, Creed ran 1000cc lightning sprint cars and dwarf cars. He began racing 600cc micro sprints three years ago, and competes regularly at Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, N.C.

"I missed dirt racing when I was racing only asphalt," Creed said. "I feel like there is something about dirt with driving that asphalt doesn't give you. This is my way of getting that."

Creed also competes at major 600 micro sprint races in Texas and Indiana. He raced on dirt in Pennsylvania for the first time last year, and made his first stop in Berks on Wednesday night.

"NASCAR is so different," Creed said. "This is more stress free for me. I can do it on my own. I own my own cars. I work on my own cars."

While he raced for the first time at Action Track USA on Wednesday, there is a good chance it won't be his last appearance at the Kutztown speedway.

"The fans have been awesome," Creed said. "The track is awesome."

In other action, Mertztown's Tyler Hoch won the all-star slingshot feature after starting sixth. He entered the night in third in the points standings.

Billy Pauch Sr. of Frenchtown, N.J., won the USAC SpeedSTR feature after starting third. The feature victory was the 745th of his career.