Sheldon Creed Wins O'Reilly Series Chase Opener at Darlington
Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing race recap - the day-after breakdown of what actually decided the race, told fan to fan.
The Short Version
Sheldon Creed won the Fleetio 200 at Darlington Raceway on Saturday night, the opening race of the nine-race NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase. This was the second-tier series race, not the Cup race. Creed led the final 53 laps in the No. 00 Ollie's Chevrolet for Haas Factory Team and beat Corey Day by 2.961 seconds. Justin Allgaier led a race-high 60 laps, hit the wall late, and watched a 35-point championship lead shrink to seven.
A Pit Stop Won This Race
Creed started 13th and did not like his car early. Crew chief Jonathan Toney kept working on it. An off-cycle tire strategy in the middle of the race moved Creed forward, and he came out of Stage 2 running third.
Then the No. 00 crew did the thing that decided the night. On the stop at the end of the second stage they got Creed off pit road ahead of Corey Day and handed him the lead for a restart with 49 laps to go. He controlled two restarts, cleared the field, and pulled away once it went long green.
"To be honest, I wasn't real happy with the car the first run, and we worked on it all night," Creed said. "JT and the boys just gave me kind of what I needed there at the end, and I was able to get away."
The last 41 laps ran caution free, which is exactly what Creed wanted. "Was just praying for no cautions," he said. It is his second career win in the series. The first took him 138 starts and came at Atlanta in February. The second took about six months.
Victory lane at Darlington. (Photo shown via the official NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series post on X)
Allgaier Hit the Wall and the Points Got Tight
Justin Allgaier ran like the regular season champion for most of the night. He won Stage 1, led 60 of the 147 laps, and sat inside the top five all race. Then his car went away. Running fourth with 23 laps left, the No. 7 Chevrolet got into the outside wall and Allgaier had to nurse it home. He finished 17th.
That ended a 10-race streak of top-10 finishes at Darlington, a track where he has won four times. It also cost him most of his cushion. Before the Chase reset he was 229 points clear. He came into Darlington 35 points up. He left seven points up on Creed.
"Our Chevrolet was really good tonight and I felt like when we were out front there we were able to save the tires, really cruise and our pace was really good," Allgaier said. "And then somewhere in the middle of that second stage I started to feel like we weren't as good as we needed to be."
The championship fight tightened up at Darlington. (Photo shown via the official NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series post on X)
The Kids Were Fast
Corey Day finished second and earned it the hard way. He made contact with William Sawalich, damaged the right front, and still drove back to the runner-up spot. The Hendrick Motorsports rookie is now fifth in the Chase standings, 46 points back.
Brent Crews was third in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Crews is not eligible for the driver championship, but the No. 19 is chasing the owner title, so a third-place run in the Chase opener matters. It was also his first Darlington start in the series.
Chase drivers Sammy Smith and Austin Hill were fourth and fifth. Anthony Alfredo took sixth after winning Stage 2 for Viking Motorsports. Taylor Gray was seventh, Creed's teammate Sam Mayer eighth, and South Carolina native Jeremy Clements ninth for his fourth top-10 of the season. Brandon Jones completed the top 10.
The Night Rajah Caruth Deserved Better
Rajah Caruth went two laps down early with a fuel pickup problem, then climbed all the way back into the top 10 and was running sixth with 45 laps to go. The same problem came back with seven laps left and forced him to pit. He finished 26th.
"We could have easily thrown ourselves out of it with an issue or put ourselves in a bad spot working through traffic," Caruth said. "But we got all the way up to sixth place and was in good position for a good result. But that happens. It's sports."
Parker Retzlaff was the other Chase driver who had a rough one, finishing 21st.
By the Numbers
Carson Kvapil put the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet on the pole with a lap of 30.424 seconds and turned the fastest lap of the race. He finished 12th and sits third in points, 19 back. Seven cautions slowed the race for 38 laps. Eight different drivers led at some point across eight lead changes.
Who's Hot, Who's Not
Hot: Creed. Two wins now, and the timing could not be better. Also Corey Day, who has turned into a driver you have to account for on a restart. And Brent Crews, who keeps finishing where the veterans are.
Not: Allgaier, only in the sense that the cushion is gone. He is still the points leader and still the six-time winner this season. Caruth and Retzlaff both need a clean night more than they need speed.
What's Next
Race two of the Chase is the Nu Way 225 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway next Saturday, September 12, at 7:30 p.m. ET on The CW. Connor Zilisch is the defending winner there and is now a Cup rookie, so that trophy is open. You can see the rest of the season and the updated points on the NASCAR O'Reilly Series schedule and standings.
The Bottom Line
One pit stop and one wall hit turned a 35-point championship lead into a seven-point one. Creed is not a feel-good story anymore. He is a title threat with eight races to go.
What do you think, was Allgaier's wall contact a driver mistake or a car that was already gone? Tell us where you land.
Rep the drivers who showed up at Darlington:
- Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed Darlington throwback tee - the winner and the fifth-place car, on a Darlington throwback
- Justin Allgaier #7 2026 Darlington win tee - from the spring race he did win here
- Sammy Smith #8 win tee - fourth place and still in the Chase
- Sam Mayer #1 win tee - Creed's Haas Factory Team teammate, eighth on Saturday
- Justin Allgaier JR Motorsports camo snapback - for the fans still riding with the points leader
Race recaps go up the day after every race. Bookmark the blog and check the O'Reilly Series schedule and standings before next Saturday at Gateway.
