Sheldon Creed held off John Hunter Nemechek and Stewart Friesen late to win the In It To Win it 200 at Darlington Raceway in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The win is Creed’s third of the season and his second in as many races.
“It feels so good to go back-to-back,” Creed said in his frontstretch interview with FOX Sports’ Josh Sims. “I just want to remember it more this year and have more fun with it. [I want] to put the pressure on the other guys. I had nothing to lose coming in”.
With his win two weeks ago at WWT Raceway, Creed became the only driver locked into the Round of 8 in the Camping World Truck Series playoffs. However, a second-place finish for Nemechek at Darlington was enough to punch the second ticket into the Round of 8.
“[We needed] clean air,” Nemechek told FOX Sports’ Jamie Little. “We had a really good truck all day, the Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra was fast from the start….. it is what it is, at least we clinched our way into the second round”.
The only thing missing for third-place finisher Stewart Friesen was time. He pit for tires during a late caution and raced back to within a second of the lead. However, late lapped traffic served as a barrier for the 38-year-old but he still settled for his best finish of the season.
“We fought a loose condition all day,” Friesen told Little. “We got off sequence and got some tires there, [and] almost thumped one out there but kind of got caught up in lap traffic”.
Todd Gilliland finished in fourth-place for his eighth top-10 in the last nine races, while Parker Kligerman finished fifth-place for the second time this season. Kligerman will now assume his TV role with NBC Sports for the Cup Series race later this evening.
Chandler Smith and Zane Smith finished the race in seventh and ninth place, respectively. However, due to poor finishes at WWT Raceway, both drivers sit below the playoff cutline. Austin Hill, Sunday’s 12th place finisher, currently holds onto the final playoff spot.
Notably, Ben Rhodes finished in 35th place but still has a 15-point cushion heading into the final race of the Round of 10. He incurred damage at multiple points throughout the race and finished seven laps down. Rhodes had finished 1st and 2nd in his previous two starts at Darlington and entered the race as a favorite to win.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action on Thursday, September 16 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The race is slated for a 9 p.m. start on FS1.
Full results can be found HERE.