Sheldon Creed discusses departure from Richard Childress Racing
LAS VEGAS — Sheldon Creed heads into Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs race as a title contender in the Round of 8. He also heads in knowing he won’t be returning to the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in 2024.
Creed announced his departure from the team on Wednesday, days after clinching his spot in the penultimate round of the postseason. His plans for the new year remain undisclosed, but ultimately felt ready for a new environment after two years of driving the No. 2 car.
“I don’t know, I think a lot of things play a role,” Creed told NASCAR.com Friday ahead of practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “I’ve been happy. We’ve had OK runs, but I felt like it was time for a change for me just to switch things up a bit.”
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Creed, the 2020 Craftsman Truck Series champion, can earn another national series title in three weeks time at Phoenix Raceway if he advances to the Championship 4 round for the Nov. 4 contest. The Alpine, California native is still seeking his first Xfinity victory and aims to do so before leaving crew chief Jeff Stankiewicz and Co.
“We really want to finish really strong together,” Creed said. “And that’s important for not only myself, but for all the guys. Like, someone’s going to step into this car and have a good shot at winning with these guys and running well. And I want to help them prove how good they are and finish strong. If we can go and win one of these next three (races) and get ourselves in the final four and give ourselves a shot at the championship then yeah, I think everyone would be happy.”
That the announcement comes during the playoffs — and particularly with just four races remaining in the 2023 campaign — isn’t ideal for either party. But Creed’s next opportunity came quickly, he explained.
“Honestly, I thought I was going back to RCR if you had asked me four weeks ago,” Creed said. “Just an opportunity came up to make a change. I don’t know. We bonded on it for a while. RC (Team owner Richard Childress) and everyone at RCR are great people. They gave me my first shot out of trucks. So it’s not an easy decision. If we do make this jump, is it worth it? All those little things go through your head.
“I would have loved to have this behind us in August and then everyone could move forward. But here we are at the beginning of October, later than we all wanted.”
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Despite a run-in at Bristol Motor Speedway in September, Creed said his relationship with teammate Austin Hill has been strong for years and enjoyed working alongside him. Both drivers are still eligible for the Xfinity championship, with Hill seeded second, 21 points above the provisional elimination line thanks to four victories this season. Creed is seventh, 12 points beneath the line.
“Austin and I were kind of buddies in the Truck Series,” Creed said. “We raced for different teams and manufacturers obviously. We raced each other really hard. And then I feel like we hit it off like as soon as we became teammates. We both have young families, hanging out. We hang out outside the race track a lot. And me and him were talking the other day actually. There’s a lot I’m gonna miss about just working with Austin and our families being around — which I’m sure we’re gonna hang out outside of this again, but it was super cool to to have a teammate like Austin and I feel like we worked really well together with the simulator and just things that we thought we needed in the cars. It was a fun experience.”
Hill and Creed both came into RCR and the Xfinity Series at the same time to run full-time schedules. Hill has netted six wins in his time at RCR while Creed is still seeking that first checkered flag. Creed said he has grown “so much” as a driver over the past two years as he’s adapted to the Xfinity car.
“The truck doesn’t prepare you well for the Xfinity car. It’s just a totally different deal,” Creed said. “So I felt like the first maybe half of last year was learning and getting used to it and just trying to better at my race-craft. Trying to get more and more and then I make mistakes and stuff. So I’ve tried to clean that up the second half of this year, and we’ve been good at finishing lately.”
