KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Perhaps it was only fitting that former Stadium Super Truck star Sheldon Creed completed his ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards championship season Friday night by winning in a car that looked like it had been through an off-road event.
Creed put the cap on his incredible year with a thrilling come-from-behind victory at Kansas Speedway. In a race where all he had to do was turn a lap of practice to secure the title, Creed charged to the lead, then rallied back after mid-race contact with a lapped car to reign victorious for the fourth time in 2018.
The Alpine, Calif., native found himself mired deep in the field following the lap 46 incident on the frontstretch, which occurred while he was leading the race. However, Creed and MDM Motorsports epitomized the phrase “never give up,” repairing the car and getting back into contention.
Creed re-entered the top 10 on lap 56, less than 10 miles after the restart, and methodically continued pushing forward as attrition and incidents took contender after contender out of the mix.
First it was a crash with 38 to go that saw polesitter and early dominator Drew Herring make contact with Self in a three-wide scrap for the top spot. Herring went spinning in turn three and then shredded a right-rear tire, falling a lap down and never becoming a factor again after that.
Next it was an incident on the ensuing restart with 30 to go, where Natalie Decker, Self and Codie Rohrbaugh tangled amid what was becoming a four-wide scrap for the top spot. Decker spun into the frontstretch grass, while Self narrowly escaped unscathed and assumed the point.
At that point, Creed was lurking back in fifth, and he made a power move when the green flag waved with 24 to go to move past two cars and take third before a hard crash involving Zane Smith, Gus Dean and Riley Herbst forced the seventh of eight caution flags on the night.
Though Dean took a frightening head-on hit to the outside wall at the entrance to turn three, both he and Smith climbed out under their own power.
That incident paved the way for Creed’s winning move. He lined up on the inside of the second row and nailed the restart when racing conditions resumed with 15 laps left, shoving Self to the lead before ducking to the inside exiting turn two onto the backstretch.
Though Self tried to hold the No. 28 United Rentals Toyota at bay, he was powerless to stop the charging Creed from asserting command and driving off into the night.
Despite a final caution flag for Leilani Munter’s crashed Toyota, Creed ultimately took the checkered flag nearly a second in front of teammate Harrison Burton, holding Burton off on a nine-lap sprint to the finish.
“I honestly don’t know how we did that,” admitted Creed with a shake of the head. “I thought we were out of it after that contact. … What a good car. To be leading it … have a lapper just drive into me, which could have been my fault, I’m amazed that we’re here right now. This thing is still falling apart. I could see the front wheel from where I was sitting because all the crush panels were blown out of it.
“That restart at the end that gave us control (of the race) was everything,” he added. “The guys tightened up the car when we got tires at the end, too, and it helped a ton. We had a rocketship.”
Creed then quickly compared his performance to another wheelman he hopes to be racing soon.
“That’s Kyle Busch stuff right there, I think, to win with a beat-up race car like that,” he smiled. “That’s rad. What a night. I can’t thank all my guys at MDM Motorsports enough for everything this year.”
Creed’s fourth win of the season gave him a 525-point margin over Smith in the final standings.
Burton came home as the runner-up in his first 1.5-mile appearance despite an issue with the engine idler during the late cautions Friday night.
“The throttle was sticking and holding the RPMs at 5000 under yellow, and it made it really challenging on restarts,” Burton said. “We hung on, though. This was a really good night for us.”
Self completed the podium, followed by teenagers Riley Herbst and Chase Purdy.
Herring, who led a race-high 40 laps, finally got his lap back at the final caution and finished eighth.
Todd Gilliland, one of the pre-race favorites, crashed out at lap 23 and was 22nd in the final rundown.
The finish:
Sheldon Creed, Harrison Burton, Michael Self, Riley Herbst, Chase Purdy, Natalie Decker, Tyler Hill, Drew Herring, Zach Ralston, Cole Glasson, Eric Caudell, Codie Rohrbaugh, Will Kimmel, Leilani Munter, Anthony Alfredo, Con Nicolopoulos, Zane Smith, Gus Dean, Kevin Hinckle, Travis Braden, Joe Graf Jr., Todd Gilliland, L.B. Skaggs, Mike Basham, Brad Smith.
